Olé! has been recognized in 2014 with several literary awards. The book has achieved:
First Place in the Compilations/Anthologies category of the San Francisco Book Festival
First Place in the Anthologies category of the National Indie Excellence Award
Named Finalist in the Sports category of the International Book Awards
Short-listed for the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award in the Sports and Adventure/Recreation categories.
A marvelous book! The photos and artwork alone are worth the price. Every essay shines with insight, and the editing is superb. I was particularly moved by Joseph Distler's memorable ubi sunt tribute to the encierro and its legendary runners.—James Carlos Blake, author of eleven novels as well as many short stories and essays. His work, which frequently focuses on the American outlaw life, has earned several literary awards, most recently the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir Étranger for the novel Red Grass River. His latest novel is The Rules of Wolfe, published in 2013.
Bullfighting all but disappeared from the news and sports pages of America and other countries some fifty years ago. Champions of bullfighting such as Ernest Hemingway and James Michener are no longer available to tell its story. And so it has fallen largely on the aficionado to bring the story of bullfighting into the 21st century. That is the aim of Olé: Capturing the Passion of Bullfighters and Aficionados in the 21st Century.
Among the contributors are Edward Lewine, author of Death and the Sun: A Matador’s Season in the Heart of Spain; Ernest Hemingway’s grandson John Hemingway, author of Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir; Michael Wigram, co-founder of 6Toros6, perhaps the most widely-read bullfighting journal in the world today; Alexander Fiske-Harrison, author of Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight, Madrid-based journalist Bill Lyon, and Joe Distler, among the most renowned of all Pamplona runners.
The book features more than 300 photographs, most in color. Among the contributing photographers are Nicolás Haro, Jim Hollander, Mark Mecalis and Ric Polansky—all of whose work should be familiar to fans of the corrida de toros.
Some say the golden age of the bullfight has passed. A half-century ago, bullfighting was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated while Hemingway’s words about the corrida de toros were serialized in the pages of Life magazine. Bullfighting has managed to remain a part of 21st century culture, not only in Spain and Mexico but in other countries as well. There are dedicated followers of the corrida de toros in many European countries as well as the United States. Aficionados can even be found in China. No matter where they may live, aficionados share the trait known as el gusano. It is a Spanish term applied to those who have been “bitten by the worm.†Many people may regard it as an unusual term but as every aficionado soon learns, once the worm bites the wound never heals.