'Nothing to be afraid of': Reading and Translating Brian Evenson

This two-day event will focus on the later work of American novelist and short story writer Brian Evenson, to be set in perspective through comparisons with his earlier work. Brian Evenson is a prolific author who has already published 13 short story collections and 3 novels. In 2023, Quidam and Rivages respectively published two of his works in French, L'Antre (originally The Warren [2016], translated by Stéphane Vanderhaeghe) and Immobilité (originally Immobility [2012], translated by Jonathan Baillehache). His œuvre has been the object of three doctoral dissertations, one of which, by Nawelle Lechevalier-Bekadar (HCTI, Université Bretagne Sud), was published under the title Brian Evenson : une esthétique du malaise (Sorbonne Université Presses, 2024). The publication, in April 2024, of Brian Evenson's latest collection of short stories, Song for the Unraveling of the World (Coffee House Press, 2019), in its French version, Comptine pour la dissolution du monde (Rivages, translated by Jonathan Baillehache), as well as of a new collection, also with Coffee House, Good Night, Sleep Tight, in September 2024 , is a fitting conjunction for an event dedicated to the author's work and its singular aesthetics. A new longer work of fiction is scheduled for release in the spring of 2025, and will be available in a French translation prior to the original English version. As a writer, professor and translator—of French prose and poetry—Brian Evenson experiments with structure and language to explore the potentialities of liminal spaces, especially the intersection of genre fiction and literary fiction. Through narratives characterized by a detached tone, recurring motifs and metafictional practices, as well as by a rich literary, philosophical and religious intertext, Evenson explores the limits of man's encounter with the various extremes offered by contemporary society. The event will be divided into four half-day sessions. The presence of Brian Evenson will allow participants to engage with him on specific texts and aspects of his work, in various formats all designed to stimulate discussion among the participants. A reading in English and in French will also be organized at a Paris bookstore on the first evening.