Caution: This episode may contain trace amounts of literary theory, experimental fiction, and unapologetically obscure references. You have been warned!
In this episode of the NoNaMe Storyteller Podcast, hosts Aki and Al, along with co-host Mark Smylie, sit down with acclaimed translator and emerging writer Edward Gauvin to explore his journey from literary translation to authorship. Best known for bringing the works of Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud and numerous French-language graphic novels to English readers, Gauvin shares about his formative years at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop—a turning point in his creative evolution.
Publishing his original fiction under the pen name H.V. Chao, Gauvin’s stories — including “Conspirator’s Notes,” “Raymond Chandler,” and “The Museum of the Future” — explore forms outside traditional realism, influenced by Donald Barthelme, Robert Coover, and Steven Millhauser. He opens up about falling into experimental writing "cause it just comes out that way" rather than by design, and how voices like Isak Dinesen shaped his literary DNA.
We also touch on Words Without Borders, Wakefield Press, the noir echoes of The Long Goodbye, the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari (A Thousand Plateaus), and the enduring influence of The New Yorker, Dalkey Archive Press, and the so-called dirty realists, such as Carver, Ford, and Mason. Expect references to everything from Coup de Torchon to Clarion, McSweeney’s to Slow Horses, and even Lou Diamond Phillips in La Bamba — all woven through a conversation filled with literary and pop culture tangents.
This episode is a must-listen for fans of literary translation, speculative fiction, noir, experimental prose, and the beautifully uneasy sentence.
Conspirator's Notes I McSweeney's (requires fee, sorry!)
"Raymond Chandler" in The Adroit Journal
My Father’s Hand by H V Chao | Kenyon Review Online
The Museum of the Future, by H. V. Chao | Birkensnake 6
PseudoPod 402: The Recovery | PseudoPod (Audio)
Translated into French:
https://www.angle-mort.fr/fiction/le-musee-du-futur/
Upcoming releases:
Keywords: Archaia, Sylvain Ferret, Delcourt, Secret Histories, Okko, The Killer, Casterman, iBooks, First-Second, Mark Siegel, Lou Diamond Phillips, La Bamba, TC Boyle, Words Without Borders, contemporary realism, speculative fiction, The Dresden Files, Clarion, Donald Barthelme, William Gass, Robert Coover, Steven Millhauser, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, The New Yorker, Dalkey Archive Press, Experimentalists, dirty realists, Richard Ford, Toby Wolfe, Raymond Carver, Bobbie Ann Mason, Wakefield Press, Jean Ferry, Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, Gilbert Sorrentino, Quai des Orfevres (written by Jean Ferry, but directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot), Coup de Torchon (directed by Bertrand Tavernier), Michel Foucault, James Yeh, McSweeney's, Ted Chiang, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Ross MacDonald, Isak Dinesen, John Updike, Mick Herron, Slow Horses, Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Marshall Plan, Michael Henry Heim, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, Dashiell Hammett, Andor, David Markson, Kazuo Ishiguro, Proust, Rock Springs, Pop. 1280, Jim Thompson, Bob le flambeur, La Femme Nikita, and H.V. Chao
Enigma by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100241
Artist: http://incompetech.com/