EDWARD GAUVIN

Last Friday night, readings by Jeffrey Ford, K. Tempest Bradford, Carlos Hernandez, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Veronica Schanoes, and Genevieve Valentine, backed up by local musicians Brian Wecht, Jeremy Goddard, John Pinamonti, Nate Landau, and Charlie Shaw, conducted by Brian Francis Slattery. And boy do I mean conducted! The Nerd Rock-to-Cuban soundtrack to Carlos Hernandez’ story was amazing.

Links are to my Youtube uploads; more can be found here and here. Wish I’d had more time on my camera.
The next “Slattery Event” will be in Boston this coming Friday: » Read the rest of this entry «

Epiphany Reading, 11/7/09

So Saturday I read H.V. Chao’s story “Jewel of the North” in its entirety for Epiphany magazine’s fall issue event, the first of two. The second is this Wednesday, November 11, so please come celebrate with a launch party for Fall 2009’s WHO’S STILL ALIVE . . . / (l)ove = (o)cean from 7-9 at Pianos (158 Ludlow St.). I will be reading from my translation of Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud’s “Talking Ape Clobbered by Clowns.”

This concludeth the flogging.

In the hope a few poorly chosen words, slightly late, are still better than none ever: Among the highlights of WFC weekend were having my Clarion mates all crammed into my mom’s house, on floor and sofa, in room and hall. Waking every morning to jaw around the breakfast table on three hours’ sleep. We also did some serious hanging out with the awesome Clarion ’08, as well as assorted Westies and past grads, largely thanks to an afternoon Clarion alum party that Leslie Howle threw Friday afternoon. While we went around the crowded room with AA-style introductions, I was mesmerized by the view of dry and distant hills from the 14^th floor: a reminder that there was a world outside, beyond the heavy curtains, carpeted corridors, deadly dull brocaded walls of conference suites. A world beyond a swarm of faces—and for a moment the prospect of another handshake felt crippling. Sunshine! Fresh air! Through the tinted window it seemed almost a back projection, or a collective hallucination, as loud an announcement as a long shot of landscape in a sweeping old epic, the green world (though it was mostly brown) they run to at the end of some cut of Blade Runner. » Read the rest of this entry «

Author Alan DeNiro, a Michigan Clarion vet I met at WFC, has a few neat roundups of WFC events here. In his Day 2 report, he mentions the Fantasy in Translation panel, where critic and blogger Cheryl Morgan announced the tremendously exciting Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards, for works of foreign-language speculative fiction translated into English.

She gave fervent argument for the award, which is really her brainchild: “In running the Science Fiction Awards Watch web site, I see non-English speaking countries all around the world give awards for translated fiction. Only in English-speaking countries are translations not specifically rewarded. We aim to change that.” » Read the rest of this entry «

Thanks to Jeff VanderMeer, Amazon has listed Interfictions 2 among the Top 10 Books of Science Fiction & Fantasy for 2009. (Insert Kermit arm-waving) More details at the IAF site and blog.

LiveJournal user rymenhild attended the Interfictions 2 Borderlands reading in San Francisco last Tuesday, where she heard editor Delia Sherman read from “L’Île Close,” and sent Ellen Kushner this message she kindly passed on to author Lionel Davoust and me: “Hello. This is… the medievalist who came to the Borderlands reading…. I read the rest of ‘L’Ile Close’ on the way home that night—a metatextual post-Sartre Arthurian story! It read as if it were written for me personally!—and totally humiliated myself by cackling all over the subway when I got up to the point where the Grail was singing Monty Python.” » Read the rest of this entry «

The lovely book above is now available and there’s an event this Sunday to celebrate, in World Fantasy Con‘s very own San Jose! Smashing French writer Lionel Davoust is translated therein by yours truly, but the true treasure is the talent we get to rub shoulders with: Jeffrey Ford, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Theodora Goss, Alan DeNiro, and Brian Francis Slattery!

Go get Interfictions 2! Published by Small Beer Press and edited by Christopher Barzak and Delia Sherman, the anthology includes contributions from six countries, including the United States, Poland, Norway, Australia, France, and Great Britain. In celebration, we’re throwing a multi-city party of readings, signings, and musical collaborations.

If you live near one of these cities, don’t miss your chance to witness the cutting edge of interstitial art!

SAN JOSE
THIS Sunday, November 1 at 4:00 p.m
Barnes & Noble
3600 Stevens Creek Boulevard

SAN FRANCISCO
Tuesday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Borderlands Books
866 Valencia Street

NEW YORK
Friday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street

LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, November 10 at 8:00 p.m.
M Bar
1253 Vine (at Fountain)

BOSTON
Friday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m.
The Lily Pad
Inman Square
1353 Cambridge Street

Full-on World Fantasy Con madness this weekend! Meanwhile, back at the Batcave… go support Ledig House!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Time: 7:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: KGB Bar 85 East 4th Street NYC

Ledig House residents will be reading brief excerpts from their work. Participants include: Martin Kimani (Kenya), Rien Kuntari (Indonesia), Keshni Kashyap (US), Linda Gaboriau (Canada), Tom Dryer (South Africa), Cailtin Doyle (US), Pravda Miteva (Bulgaria), Kaijamari Sivill (Finland), Kathrin Aehnlich (Germany), and Henning Kober (Germany). Also, special guest alumnus Mohan Sikka!

Come one come all. Exciting new literature from all corners of the world. Reading will last about an hour.

I like Philippe Katerine: he’s witty, jaded, fanciful (“Je vous emmerde” is a classic, “Poulet No. 728120” bizarrely moving, “Pyjama de soie” goes well with a glass of red late at night). On a recent flight, this song popped up on shuffle for the first time in a while, and I was reminded how much I liked the lyrics, though I’d always heard the first line as “J’ai battu le néant dans un grand restaurant” (tr: I fought off nothingness in a fine restaurant). And the chorus as “Mais toi, tu n’y vois que tu fus” (tr: But you only see what you were). Or fumes (smoke)? Rorschach test, I guess…

J’ai combattu des lions dans un grand restaurant,
j’ai posé un avion dans un jardin d’enfant,
j’ai construit un immeuble dans une chambre de bonne,
monté un éléphant dans la rue de Charonne

Mais toi tu n’y vois que du feu
à croire que t’as de la merde dans les yeux

Nous vivons prisonnier dans le ventre d’un chien,
tout le monde le sais mais personne ne dit rien,
j’ai mangé l’Espagnol qui jouait de la guitare,
tous les dimanches matin sur le Pont des Arts

Où est-ce que tu es ?
ou, les châteaux a Santiago
ou une vallée de coquelicots
ferme les yeux on voit bien

Viens combattre les lions dans les grands restaurants,
faire la révolution sur un tapis volant
Viens vider l’océan en une seule gorgée,
viens fumer le monde en une seule bouffée

Translation follows (some liberties taken for meter, rhyme, and euphony): » Read the rest of this entry «