Contemporary Weird Fiction in Anglo-Saxon Countries and 21st-Century Horror

Back in 2013 I wrote a short introductory essay to the Polish weird fiction anthology Po Drugiej Stronie (published by Agharta), which serves as a tribute to S. Grabiński, H. P. Lovecraft and T. Ligotti. I was lucky to be in the fine company of Paweł Mateja, Michał Budak and Mateusz Kopacz who formed part of the jury evaluating submissions and who also provided their introductory essays (I cannot thank Mateusz enough for his encouragement to provide my own input). In my text entitled “Współczesne Weird Fiction w Krajach Anglosaskich” (“Contemporary Weird Fiction in Anglo-Saxon Countries”), I tried to provide a commentary on the condition of contemporary weird fiction with some focus on - what I consider to be - a recent revival of the weird fiction tradition accompanied by a phenomenal amount of small presses that have helped many new significant voices emerge in the field. I have also provided hints as to the names that particularly captured my attention during my massive explorations of the works in the genre throughout the previous decade - authors I am certain would appeal to Polish readers and whose books I myself would wish to find one day in my local bookstore in a Polish translation. I have now added some of these writers to my Translingual Divinations page.

December Update

I am still working on the "Eddie" M. Angerhuber bibliography, which already runs for over thirty pages. This bibliography will be comparable in length to the Thomas Ligotti bibliography we have prepared together with Mateusz Kopacz for the Polish edition of Teatro Grottesco, however due to the sheer obscurity of source material, it will take me at least two months before I manage to finish my work.

Based on the amount of posts until now, I estimate that in order to save time to prepare some quality material I will need to shift gears and make Confusio Linguarum "operational" every third week. I think the triweekly mode will serve as a good compromise between my passions and professional aspirations, both of which can be time-consuming.

Before I am ready with the bibliography I will post a comprehensive discussion of a particular sensation infrequently evoked by some works of literature and yet quite recognizable in numerous stories and novels of weird fiction: a feeling of being drawn to crumbling buildings and abandoned places. There is a little known German compound word for this feeling you most probably never heard of. More about it in my next post.

Bibliography and Compilation of Blurbs by Thomas Ligotti

I have just published online my compilation of over 50 blurbs by Thomas Ligotti. This compilation is a small project I started while working on an extensive up-to-date bibliography of Thomas Ligotti’s works as bonus material for the Polish edition of Teatro Grottesco. I was expected to compile a list of English-language publications, whilst the translator Mateusz Kopacz was responsible for the list of publications that appeared in Poland.

Thomas Ligotti's works in Poland - better late than never

In 2012-2014 I was invited to participate in the endeavor of introducing the works of Thomas Ligotti to the readers in Poland. I initially teamed up with Mateusz Kopacz, the Polish translator of many titles related to weird fiction, including S. T. Joshi’s H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, Koszmary i fantazje. Listy i eseje (a collection of letters and essays by H.P. Lovecraft) and Cthulhu-Mythos-themed collection by Robert E. Howard, Królestwo cieni i inne opowiadania z mitologii Cthulhu.

After having two of Ligotti's stories successfully translated and published, Mateusz joined forces with 3 other Ligottians, including Wojciech Gunia, Filip Skutela, Aleksander Więckowski, who have been working on the translations of Teatro Grottesco for some time. This collaboration resulted in the Polish edition of the author’s major collection published by Okultura.

Here is a short description of the contents of the book in English. Apart from the introduction by Wojciech Gunia and me, the book contains a new foreword by the author, so far only published in Polish, cover art by Serhiy Krykun and interior illustrations by Radosław Włodarski.