EDWARD GAUVIN

Recent acceptances of Belgian authors include

• Paul Willems, “Cherepish” in Subtropics
• Thierry Horguelin, selected excerpts from The Night Voyager in Birkensnake
• Thomas Gunzig, “There Was Something We Missed in the Dark ” in Big Pulp
  
• Thomas Owen, “Kavar the Rat” podcasted in Pseudopod
• Bernard Quiriny, “Blood Orange” in The Coffin Factory
• André-Marcel Adamek, “The Ark” in Words Without Borders
• Yves Wellens, “In Tempore Semper Suspecto” in The Quarterly Conversation
  

All dates TBA. And of course, as announced earlier, Quiriny will also be making an appearance in Dalkey Archive’s Best European Fiction 2012 with his story “Rara Avis.”

Look for these Belgian fabulists in fine literary magazines throughout the coming year!

• MyAmerica, an initiative of the U.S. Embassy Brussels that aims to explore the many ways that U.S. and Belgian citizens interconnect, has an article on me and my translation work here in Belgium.
• Ryan Standfest’s anthology Black Eye, featuring a whole slew of cool artists and a short translation of Roland Topor, is now available for purchase.
• My translation of Maurice Pons’ story “The Baker’s Son” in the latest Tin House has drawn nice notices from Shane Danaher at Excurses and a student of Carrie Brown at Sweet Briar College.
• Readers hankering for more Maurice Pons after his appearance in Tin House will be able, if all goes well with rights negotiations, to look for his story “Honeymoon” in a future issue of The Coffin Factory, an exciting new literary magazine debuting in October.

• Monica Carter’s shrewd review at Salonica World Lit points out that the stories in A Life on Paper “are varied conceptually and challenge the classical idea of the function of a short story.” Educated as I was in American notions of the short story—its functions, forms, and possibilities, its structure and reach—part of what guided my selection process was in fact the desire to do just this, to challenge (as I once remarked in a post on the story “Another Story” when it appeared in The Southern Review), and thence to enter into the conversation of the domestic short story with extravagant hopes of enlarging it.
• An insightful, enthusiastic review at Mookse and Gripes gives ample space to exploring several stories in detail.
• Kind mentions at Line Paintings and Gina Choe.

“In the days that followed, an investigation was organized. Zaxton worked every night in a somnambulist state, a method he’d personally perfected, which all his colleagues envied, from Sherlock Holmes to Nick Carter, by way of Harry Dickson. He fell asleep at dusk, trusting in the secret mechanisms of his brain, no longer impeded by logic’s false patencies. He set out, sleepwalking, to inspect the premises and question witnesses, writing everything down in his notebook. The only problem was that, writing with his eyes closed, he couldn’t make out what he’d written the next day, and Judith had to rack her brains deciphering the shapeless scribbles sprawled across the pages. When she grew impatient, he found it necessary to justify the legitimacy of his method. ‘Sure, there are drawbacks,’ he’d mutter. ‘But lots of advantages too. You can’t imagine how many people have an easier time confiding in someone who’s asleep. Their consciences are eased by the thought that he won’t remember their confessions when he wakes up. And, well, they’re not far off. That’s why I take notes in my sleep.'”
~ Serge Brussolo, 3, Place de Byzance