Rhys Hughes
Encyclopedia
Rhys Henry Hughes is a Welsh
writer and essayist.
Born in Cardiff
, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino
, Milorad Pavić
, Jorge Luis Borges
, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien
, Felipe Alfau
, Donald Barthelme
and Jack Vance
. Much of his work is of a humorously eccentric bent, often parodies
and pastiche
s with surreal
and absurdist
overtones, although he is by no means limited to any of these forms and has proven to be extremely versatile. He has been published in Postscripts
among many other places.
Although he is not a member of OuLiPo
, the international literary group that uses mathematics and logic to create texts that break the familiar patterns of "normal" writing, he is one of the few English-speaking practitioners of these methods. For instance his novella 'Elusive Plato' was apparently written in the 'shape of a tesseract'. Some of his more experimental works can be considered examples of ergodic literature
.
His long novel Engelbrecht Again! is a sequel to Maurice Richardson's 1950 cult classic The Exploits of Engelbrecht and is the most radical of Hughes's books, making extensive use of lipograms, typographical tricks, coded passages and other OuLiPo techniques.
His main project consists of authoring a 1,000-story cycle of both tightly and loosely interconnected tales. Hughes calls this grand cycle a "wheel", which in turn is formed by smaller "wheels within wheels". In October 2009, Hughes wrote his 500th story. The linear sequence was disrupted when author Michael Bishop
offered to write Hughes's 612th tale, a number picked at random. That story now serves as Bishop's introduction to Hughes's short novel The Crystal Cosmos.
As well as publishing books in English and having those works translated, Hughes has created books especially for foreign language publishers that will never exist in English. For instance, A Sereia de Curitiba will only exist in a Portuguese version, and the Greek version of A New Universal History of Infamy is radically different from the English original.
In 2005 his was the title story in The Minotaur in Pamplona, two chapbooks published by D-Press and edited by Neil Ayres
. The collection also featured a poem by Brian Aldiss
. He has had several short stories published in the Nemonymous
anthologies.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
writer and essayist.
Born in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
, Milorad Pavić
Milorad Pavic (writer)
Milorad Pavić was a Serbian poet, prose writer, translator, and literary historian. He was also a candidate for Nobel Prize in Literature....
, Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien
Flann O'Brien
Brian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht and many satirical columns in The Irish Times Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was...
, Felipe Alfau
Felipe Alfau
Felipe Alfau was a Catalan American novelist and poet. Like his contemporaries Luigi Pirandello and Flann O'Brien, Alfau is considered a forerunner of later postmodern writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Donald Barthelme, and Gilbert Sorrentino.Born in Barcelona, Alfau emigrated...
, Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
and Jack Vance
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
. Much of his work is of a humorously eccentric bent, often parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
and pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
s with surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and absurdist
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
overtones, although he is by no means limited to any of these forms and has proven to be extremely versatile. He has been published in Postscripts
Postscripts
Postscripts is a quarterly Britishmagazine of science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime fiction, first published in June 2004.Each issue is published in two editions: a regular newsstand-type edition and a signed, numbered, 150-copy hardcover edition. Beginning with Postscripts #14, it is a...
among many other places.
Although he is not a member of OuLiPo
Oulipo
Oulipo is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais...
, the international literary group that uses mathematics and logic to create texts that break the familiar patterns of "normal" writing, he is one of the few English-speaking practitioners of these methods. For instance his novella 'Elusive Plato' was apparently written in the 'shape of a tesseract'. Some of his more experimental works can be considered examples of ergodic literature
Ergodic literature
Ergodic literature is a term coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his book Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, and is derived from the Greek words ergon, meaning "work", and hodos, meaning "path"...
.
His long novel Engelbrecht Again! is a sequel to Maurice Richardson's 1950 cult classic The Exploits of Engelbrecht and is the most radical of Hughes's books, making extensive use of lipograms, typographical tricks, coded passages and other OuLiPo techniques.
His main project consists of authoring a 1,000-story cycle of both tightly and loosely interconnected tales. Hughes calls this grand cycle a "wheel", which in turn is formed by smaller "wheels within wheels". In October 2009, Hughes wrote his 500th story. The linear sequence was disrupted when author Michael Bishop
Michael Bishop (author)
Michael Lawson Bishop is an award-winning American writer. Over four decades and thirty books, he has created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern science fiction and fantasy literature....
offered to write Hughes's 612th tale, a number picked at random. That story now serves as Bishop's introduction to Hughes's short novel The Crystal Cosmos.
As well as publishing books in English and having those works translated, Hughes has created books especially for foreign language publishers that will never exist in English. For instance, A Sereia de Curitiba will only exist in a Portuguese version, and the Greek version of A New Universal History of Infamy is radically different from the English original.
In 2005 his was the title story in The Minotaur in Pamplona, two chapbooks published by D-Press and edited by Neil Ayres
Neil Ayres
Neil George Ayres is an English short fiction writer, born in east London in 1979. He grew up in Tower Hamlets, Essex and Spain.His fiction includes the literary novel, Nicolo's Gifts, and short speculative fiction published in many international small and independent press publications, including...
. The collection also featured a poem by Brian Aldiss
Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
. He has had several short stories published in the Nemonymous
Nemonymous
Nemonymous was a short fiction publication that labeled itself a "megazanthus" . It was published in the United Kingdom and edited by British writer D.F...
anthologies.
Novels
- The Percolated Stars (2003)
- Engelbrecht Again! (Dead Letter Press; October 2008; ISBN 978-0-9796335-4-6)
- Mister Gum (Dog Horn Publishing; 2009)
- Twisthorn Bellow (Atomic Fez Publishing; March 2010; ISBN 978-0-9811597-1-3)
Novellas
- Eyelidiad (1996)
- Rawhead & Bloody Bones (1998)
- Elusive Plato (1998)
- The Crystal Cosmos (PS PublishingPS PublishingPS Publishing is a Hornsea based publisher founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther. They specialise in novella length fiction from the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. It has quickly become established as one of Britain's premier small presses...
; December 2007; ISBN 978-1-905834-98-3) - The Coandă Effect (Ex Occidente Press; November 2010)
Collections
- Worming the Harpy (Tartarus PressTartarus PressTartarus Press is a small, international award-winning, independent small press run by R.B. Russell and Rosalie Parker. It has two distinct specialities....
, 1995; ISBN 187262120X) - The Smell of TelescopesThe Smell of TelescopesThe Smell of Telescopes is the title of a collection of short fiction by Welsh fantasy writer Rhys Hughes, first published in 2000 by Tartarus Press...
(Tartarus PressTartarus PressTartarus Press is a small, international award-winning, independent small press run by R.B. Russell and Rosalie Parker. It has two distinct specialities....
, 2000; ISBN 1872621449) - Stories from a Lost Anthology (Tartarus PressTartarus PressTartarus Press is a small, international award-winning, independent small press run by R.B. Russell and Rosalie Parker. It has two distinct specialities....
, 2002; ISBN 9781872621685) - Nowhere Near Milk Wood (2002)
- Journeys Beyond Advice (2002)
- A New Universal History of InfamyA New Universal History of InfamyA New Universal History of Infamy is the title of a 2004 collection of short fiction by Welsh fantasy writer Rhys Hughes. The book serves as a parody and homage to Jorge Luis Borges' collection A Universal History of Infamy, following the plan of the original closely but not slavishly.The book was...
(2004) - At the Molehills of Madness (2006)
- The Less Lonely Planet (Humdrumming, Ltd.; May 2008; ISBN 978-1-905532-52-0)
- The Postmodern MarinerThe Postmodern MarinerThe Postmodern Mariner is the title of a 2008 collection of short fiction by Welsh fantasy writer Rhys Hughes. The book features eight short stories and one novella that are thematically linked in such a way that the book has a novelistic structure...
(Screaming Dreams; June 2008; ISBN 978-0-955518-52-2) - The Brothel Creeper (Gray Friar Press; March 2011; ISBN 978-1-906331-22-1)
- Link Arms With Toads! (Chômu Press; May 2011; ISBN 978-1-907681-08-0)
- Sangria in the Sangraal (forthcoming 2011)
- Tallest Stories (forthcoming 2011)
- The Impossible Inferno (forthcoming 2011)
Original foreign language books
- Em Busca do Livro de Areia (selection in PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
translation, 2005) - A Sereia de Curitiba (short fiction in PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
translation, 2007) - La Déconfiture d'Hypnos (selection in French translation, forthcoming 2012)
eBooks
- Better the Devil (2010)
- The Astral Disruptor (2010)
- The Phantom Festival (2011)
- Scamps of Disorder (2011)
Books in preparation
- My Cholesterol Socks
- The Clown of the New Eternities
- Wuthering Depths
- Djinn Septic
- Unevensong
- Fists of Fleece
- Your Saturated Stockings
- Mirrors in the Deluge
- Salty Kiss Island
- The Jam of Hypnos
- Bone Idle in the Charnel-House
- The Senile Pagodas
- Ditto and Likewise
- The Pilgrim's Regress
- The Isle of Chrome
- The Sky Saw
- The Solar Weavers
- The Indigo Casbah
- Dribble as I Dawdle
- Flash in the Pantheon
- Implausible Planets
- The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange
- Taurus of Nemedia
- The Scamps of Disorder
- The Young Dictator
- The Truth Spinner
- Soft Wine
- Our Malignant Slippers
- The Book of Lladloh
- Occam's Beard
- Captains Outrageous
- Suppers at the Periodic Table
- The Just Not So Stories
- My Big Glib Book of Flippant Fairy Tales
- The Knight of Whatever
- The Mischief Maker
External links
- The Spoons That Are My Ears!, Rhys Hughes's weblog
- An Interview with Rhys Hughes, by Anthony Brockway
- Rhys Hughes, the man who laughs at goldfish, interview by Steve Redwood
- Polluto: The Anti-Pop Culture Journal official website