Clovis
The debut, eco-novel by Jack Clinton
Winner of the 2019 Best Book Award for LGBTQ Fiction
Montana NPR interviews Jack Clinton
Workshop and book signing with Jack Clinton at the Jackson Hole Writer’s Conference, June 28, 2018; and at the Mendocino Coast Writer’s Conference. 2-4 August, 2018
Trapped in the orbit of the buttes and a black obsidian Clovis, Hanna is sure there’s nothing romantic about her hot and dusty job as an archeologist in the cultural and real desert. As she negotiates the misogyny of this no-woman’s-land, she’s on the move to evade physical and spiritual abuse at the hands of oil-field boys, and guard the damaged and angelic Paul. She’s vegetarian in a fast food wasteland and a transcendentalist who can’t quite catch the wave of nothingness. Her clan of fellow archeologists tries to keep her from harm, but everything she truly needs lies outside the aegis of their reach.
Clovis casts an eye across the vast, empty lands of the Western American basins where the endless clamor of petroleum developments rings tirelessly. Told from the point of view of a working crew of archeological contractors who labor to save endangered artifacts from the churning machinations of the CanAm gas pipeline, Clovis bears witness to the quiet environmental usurpation of American public lands.
Clinton’s novel explores the possible history of the Clovis people and their apocalyptic demise at the hands of their own elegant invention, the Clovis Point. The relevance of the eclipsed culture to the precarious balance of our own clouds the intense joys the characters feel as they navigate the wealth of the natural world.
Clinton’s novel is an artful literary response to the unutterable and largely ignored decline of our collective natural wealth. Clinton mixes a sardonic misanthropy of our own current environmental course with jubilation, and the joy of love, the celebration of the human condition, and the intense passion of being immersed in the natural world.
Clovis will continue Harvard Square Editions’ tradition of promoting fiction that furthers civil and environmental causes in a market that would rather leave such voices unheard.
Clovis
by Jack Clinton
Release date: January 12, 2018
Genre: LGBT; eco-Fiction
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-941861-53-0
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Praise for Clovis
“Clinton’s novel is an artful literary response to the unutterable and largely ignored decline of our collective natural wealth. Clinton mixes a sardonic misanthropy of our own current environmental course with jubilation, and the joy of love, the celebration of the human condition, and the intense passion of being immersed in the natural world. Clovis will continue Harvard Square Editions’ tradition of promoting fiction that furthers civil and environmental causes in a market that would rather leave such voices unheard.”
“In Clovis, Jack Clinton spins a wonder-filled tale poetically rendered in the Western landscape, ripe with classic, modern-day struggles, and inhabited by characters you grow to love.”
—Jackson Hole Skier Magazine
“Clovis is a lyrical tale set in the New West where the interests of oil companies clash with the need to preserve and record the artefacts left by long gone inhabitants of the land. In this novel, Hanna and her archeological compatriots are hired by CanAm Oil Company to assess the impact of an oil line on historical native sites. The complex relationships between her and her co-workers fascinate. The lush descriptions of the natural beauty she encounters are seductive. This is truly a wonderful look into the unique personality of people who choose to make a living doing field work. They are a breed apart. An excellent read that keeps you engaged from the beginning.”
—Big Sky Independent Press, 4.5/5 Stars
“Clovis is a wonder of a novel that will dazzle you with its impassioned understanding of archeology, Western landscapes, and human connection. Jack Clinton’s writing about hiking and climbing and seeking solace in the outdoors is among the best I’ve ever read. In Hanna, Clinton has created an unconventional heroine for all seasons, a humane and restless seeker who can master every terrain except that of her own heart.”
—Alyson Hagy, author of Boleto
“Hanna is a heroine , straight and true. She protects Paul and guards against the day-to-day ridicule of the men in the fields. It’s a tough job, but it is one she was born to do. It is a testament to a spirit undaunted by words.”
—Daphne Manning, Edelweiss Reviewer
About the Author
Jack Clinton is the winner of the The Neltje Blanchan Award, for which $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script which is informed by a relationship with the natural world. Clovis is his debut LGBT, climate fiction, literary novel.
