Chris Bachelder on FUN CAMP: “I celebrate this book for its formal inventiveness, its rich humor, its exuberant language, its genuine spirituality, and most of all for its tender and abiding regard for the oversized feelings of adolescence.”

My first book, FUN CAMP, arrives this spring from Mud Luscious Press with advance praise from one of my favorite fiction writers, Chris Bachelder.

“A less adept writer would flatten summer camp into mere nostalgic idyll or slapstick farce, but Gabe Durham is alive to the tonal complexity of his subject. I celebrate this book for its formal inventiveness, its rich humor, its exuberant language, its genuine spirituality, and most of all for its tender and abiding regard for the oversized feelings of adolescence. Durham knows his pranks, but he is not a prankster. He’s the real thing.” – Chris Bachelder, author of U.S.! and Abbott Awaits

Chris was one of my early readers for this book, and his advice and enthusiasm really pushed the book along to completion.

Here is an interview I did with him about his novel, Abbott Awaits.

You can pre-order FUN CAMP now as part of the 2013 MLP subscription. Subscriptions close at the end of this month.