Today it is my distinct pleasure to bring you this recent interview I did with the talented author, Brian Evenson. I recently read his early collection Fugue State and thought it a fantastic book. Here’s my review, which doesn’t really do it justice – I encourage you to read this and any of Brian’s other superb books (click on the book cover images below to be taken direct to the Amazon book page):
“Brian Evenson's Fugue State is a very surrealistic, slip-stream kind of collection
soaked with dark themes and nightmarish allegories that make the reader think!
A bit of a rarity these days. I especially liked the way the stories encouraged
a second reading. Stand-outs for me were 'In the Greenhouse', 'Life Without
Father', 'Fugue State' and 'The Adjudicator.' Will definitely be reading more
from this fine author.”
Without further ado, here is my interview with
Brian.
BRIAN EVENSON is the author of a dozen
books of fiction, most recently the story collection A Collapse of Horses (Coffee House Press, 2016) and the novella The Warren (Tor.com, 2016). His
collection Windeye (Coffee House
Press 2012) and novel Immobility (Tor
2012) were both finalists for a Shirley Jackson Award. His novel Last Days won the American Library
Association's award for Best Horror Novel of 2009. The Open Curtain (Coffee House Press, 2006) was a finalist for an
Edgar Award and an International Horror Guild Award. Other books include The Wavering Knife (which won the
IHG Award for best story collection), Dark
Property, and Altmann's
Tongue. He is the recipient of three O. Henry Prizes as well as an
NEA fellowship. His work has been translated into French, Greek, Italian,
Spanish, Japanese and Slovenian. He lives and works in California, and teaches
at CalArts.
Q: You have recently been in Transylvania
teaching at the Horror Writer’s Workshop, did you get an opportunity to explore
the countryside and were you inspired by your experience?
A: We did. The Horror Writer’s Workshop was held just
outside of the town that houses Bran Castle, the basis for Dracula’s castle in
Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so I spent
some time there, also explored some of the nearby towns and medieval villages
and fortresses, places like Sighisoara and Brasov, took my son to a decaying
Communist playground complete with scary cartoon figures, passed through a
gypsy village in which on a Sunday morning everyone was carrying a broom, spent
time in the forest, etc. It’s an amazing
place, and it reminded me a lot of what parts of Europe used to be like 30 or
35 years ago, back when I visited as a kid.
I do think I got a lot out of it and that it’ll figure in my writing in
various ways.
