EDWARD GAUVIN

Four short-shorts by Marcel Béalu are up at the second issue of Anomalous, as promised in an earlier post. They are:

• “The Aerostat Room”
• “The Bus of No Return”
• “The Honest Illusionist“
• “Palmistry“

Also, in Words Without Borders this month (the first of two issues on the Arab Spring), Boualem Sansal’s “An Open Letter to Mohammed Bouazizi.”

Here’s a few things I bought from a friend who’s been potting for quite a few years now. She’s just taken the first step toward realizing her dream of living off her art and hobby by opening a Paris-based ceramics studio: Khnoum, named after the ram-headed Egyptian potting divinity and originally, god of the source of the Nile. My friend gives lessons at her studio, and her wares are available for purchase (her site, in French and English, links to her Etsy store). Next step: make enough to move the studio to a small, sunny country town…

No details allowed yet, but call it Edward Gorey meets Calvin & Hobbes.

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last week (June 29), and it is exploding the interwebs! Here’s a sweet little promotional video for the graphic novel:

Thanks to the folks at Top Shelf, who were great to work with. Just a few of the many reviews below. Links courtesy of Nicolas Grivel, the fab agent who made this all happen.

• Alex Dueben’s Workblog
• Comic Booked
• French Culture
• Pol Culture
• The Daily Blam
• Wilson Knut
• Things I Think About
• Bookworm Kitty
• The Onion AV Club
• MTV Geek Club
• Worcester Magazine
• Cammy’s Comic Corner
• Nerd City
• Comic Book Resources
• The Beat
• The Great God Pan Is Dead
• Omnicomic

A few posts ago I mentioned French short story writer Marie Lafon, who won the Prix Renaissance for her 2002 collection Liturgie. This fall, West Branch, the literary journal of Bucknell University, will be featuring my translation of her story “Moles” from her collection Organes, also published by Buchet-Chastel.

Starting with Issue #3, I’ll also be jumping on as translator for BOOM! Studios’ Star Wars parody Space Warped by Hervé Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert, in their kaboom! imprint. It’s a fun, quippy ride, set in vaguely medieval times.

on one side of which was a huge building with a domed roof. Light streamed from it through a great window of stained glass, on which was depicted a blue warrior fighting a red dragon… no, it was not a stained glass window but merely the reflection on the white walls of the building from a house in complete darkness in the opposite side of the square, inhabited by creatures made of red lacquer. He new that they were expecting him to call, because they believed that he was courting one of them.” ~ Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist

cool stuff. Check it out:

• Huge congrats to my Clarion 2009 pal Shauna Roberts for winning the Older Writers Grant this year from the Speculative Literature Foundation! In her daily life, Shauna is an award-winning medical writer and editor specializing in diabetes and related subjects, but I know her best as a penner of fantasy, science fiction, and romance stories and novels.
• Writer, filmmaker, and book scout D.W. Gibson, director of the Ledig House residency, has launched an exciting documentary project called Not Working. It’s not what it sounds like. This is what it is:

Beginning on June 21, Gibson will spend the summer and early fall travelling across the US, beginning in Orange County, California, finishing in Camden, New Jersey. Accompanied by a videographer, he will interview individuals who have become unemployed as a result of the economic downturn over the last three years. Interviews will center on each personʼs story of losing a job: the Friday visit to HR, the form letter, the pointed email, the profane text, the security escort. Gibson will visit epicenters of the recession such as Fresno, California; Reno, Nevada; Kansas City, Missouri; and Columbus, Ohio.

The project is a response to Stud Terkelʼs seminal book Working, first published in 1972. Familiarity with Terkelʼs book will absolutely enhance oneʼs interest in this project, but it is by no means a prerequisite. Not Working communicates on its own. By presenting the voices and faces of those affected, it reveals the Great American Recession not just as a set of statistics or a political debating point but as an intensely human tragedy that is sweeping the country. Not Working will be published as a book in the early spring of 2012 by OR Books.

Check out the site for pics, vids, podcasts, and blog updates!

Basically, I was like, “Holy Sh**!” when I came home from dinner last night and found my Clarion buds announcing on Facebook that Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud’s A Life on Paper won the first ever Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award!

Huge congratulations to the Honorable Mentions, and all the Nominees!

Long Form Honorable Mention

The Golden Age, Michal Ajvaz, translated by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive Press). Original publication in Czech as Zlatý Věk (2001).

Long Form Winner

A Life on Paper: Stories, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated by Edward Gauvin (Small Beer Press). Original publication in French (1976­-2005).

Short Form Honorable Mention

“Wagtail”, Marketta Niemelä, translated by Liisa Rantalaiho (Usva International 2010, ed. Anne Leinonen). Original publication in Finnish as “Västäräkki” (Usva (The Mist), 2008).

Short Form Winner

“Elegy for a Young Elk”, Hannu Rajaniemi, translated by Hannu Rajaniemi (Subterranean Online, Spring 2010). Original publication in Finnish (Portti, 2007).

Special Award

In addition to the standard awards, the Board of ARESFFT presented a special award to British author and translator Brian Stableford in recognition of the excellence of his translation work.

I’ve been translating the comics series The Secret History for Archaia since around 2006. I’ve always liked its blend of history and action, and I suppose that over the years it became a favorite because it felt like an underdog, overlooked in favor of Archaia’s more popular French series, The Killer and Okko. Former history professor turned comics scribe Jean-Pierre Pécau worked with a number of artists over its run, including Leo Pilipovic and Goran Sudzuka, but after a stint at the beginning, the series seems to have settled on Igor Kordey, perhaps best known in the US for his time on the Grant Morrison X-Men run.

All this to say I’m delighted to see The Secret History nominated in the category of Favorite European Comic Book for The Eagle Awards, a British-based fan awards program whose legacy stretches back to the middle 1970s. 2011 winners were announced in late May at the MCM Expo in London. Heck, I didn’t even know The Secret History was distributed in the UK! It lost to Blacksad, another book I briefly worked on, and was surrounded by worthy competitors: Sky Doll, Requiem: Vampire Knight, and, The Scorpion.

I’m also happy to announce that Archaia has taken on two Pécau titles set in the Secret History universe. I can’t reveal the names of these spin-off series yet, but it seems only fitting, since Archaia has also released the Cyclops series by Killer writer Matz (and Luc Jacamon, before it switches to another artist). Currently, I’m working on Book 18 of The Secret History, which in France is up to a whopping 21 volumes. Go buy the latest book! Keep it alive in the States!

Tuesday evening, the U.S. Embassy in Brussels (Rue Zinner 2) hosted the farewell reception for this year’s Fulbrighters. The year’s gone by so fast! I thought I’d indulge some nostalgia with these photos from September’s welcome reception, from a post that never happened last fall. In a room with refreshingly Audobon wallpaper, Ambassador Howard Gutman effused and enthused by way of congratulations while the trays of shrimp, of magret, of gazpacho made their discreet and eagerly met rounds. Cellist Lauren Franklin treated us to some Bach.

Ambassador Howard Gutman

Fulbright Director Margaret Nicholson

Fulbrighters!