Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Dissolution of Small Worlds
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: www.kurtfawver.com
CITY: Tampa
STATE: FL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Susquehanna University, B.A., 2002; Cleveland State University, M.A., 2008; University of South Florida, Ph.D., 2013.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, adjunct instructor.
AWARDS:Shirley Jackson Award, for “The Convexity of Our Youth.”
WRITINGS
Author of a blog; contributor to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Vastarien Literary Journal.
SIDELIGHTS
Kurt Fawver is a writer originally from Pennsylvania. He earned degrees from Susquehanna University and Cleveland State University before completing a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of South Florida in 2013. Fawver’s academic research interests include nineteenth-, twentieth-century, and contemporary American literature. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of South Florida.
Forever, in Pieces
In 2013 Fawver published the short story collection Forever, in Pieces. The eighteen stories in the collection cover a range of topics that revolve around exploring the dark depths of the human soul. In “The Waves from Afar,” a man wonders about the allure of an alien sea, with its swirling colors that captivate people who come to gaze at it and die. With “For the Unhaunted,” a young family moves into a house specifically because it is haunted. In “The Binary Must Prevail: A Brief History,” chairs are turned into sentient beings, raising the question as to what rights they have and to what extent they will go to in order to achieve those rights.
Writing in the Horror Society website, Kris Lugosi found the titular tale a “beautiful story” from “start to finish.” Lugosi admitted: “I loved the visuals in” “The Waves from Afar.” Lugosi mentioned that “With a Ribbon on Top” was “one of my favorite short stories.” He also found the title to “Brief Repose Moments before a Gruesome and Certain Death” to be “perfect.” Lugosi described “May Old Acquaintance Be Forgot” as being “a disturbing modern day Noah’s Ark tale.” Lugosi then commented that “Birthday” “reminded me of an old black and white Hitchcock or Twilight Zone episode. Dark and disturbing with fast pace confusion that in turn makes you panic right along side the characters.” Ultimately, Lugosi concluded that “this book was a great psychological collection of horror stories. Very dark tone to all the stories accompanied by even darker amazing illustrations by Luke Spooner of Carrion House. Amazing artwork and amazing stories. I highly recommend picking up an actual copy of this book. A PDF and kindle just won’t do it justice. This is a book for the shelf.” Reviewing the collection in Teleread, Paul St. John Mackintosh called Fawver “a dab hand at pace and timing.” Mackintosh noticed that “much of his fiction actually hinges on profound existential disquiet – not what you expect to read on the jacket of a Stephen King novel, but a posture that’s able to give quite a number of shocks and squick moments along the way.”
The Dissolution of Small Worlds
Fawver published the short story collection The Dissolution of Small Worlds in 2018. This collection of fourteen short stories explores existential terror. The stories are varied: an elderly man living in a nursing home is haunted by eerie calls; a group of work-study students are drawn to an odd room in the university library; a writer travels to a small, remote town in search of its unusual Halloween traditions; and a monster must cope with her mother pushing her into a more traditional lifestyle.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly insisted that “this is a satisfying exploration of ‘seething, conscious torment.’” The same reviewer called “The Final Correspondence of Sabrina Locker” “the most successful tale” in the collection. A contributor to the Signal Horizon website observed that “there is a huge breadth of range in The Dissolution of Small Worlds, ranging from stories that are more in your face, “Every Weeknight at Seven and Seven-Thirty,” to tales that are much more subtle, like “A Silence of Starlings.” Many are highly metatextual, “An Interview with Samuel X. Slayden” being a prime example, yet others, like “Cone of Heaven,” purposefully distance themselves from context to create something that is absolutely new.” The Signal Horizon website reviewer pointed out that “other readers may notice, as I have, that when Fawver stumbles it is not because he tried to take us too far off the traditional horror path and blaze his own trail to parts unknown. No, when Fawver stumbles it is because he has not tried to take us far enough.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2018, review of The Dissolution of Small Worlds, p. 77.
ONLINE
Chronicle Vitae, https://chroniclevitae.com/ (October 13, 2018), author profile.
Horror Society, https://www.horrorsociety.com/ (December 13, 2013), Kris Lugosi, review of Forever, In Pieces.
Signal Horizon, https://www.signalhorizon.com/ (September 14, 2018), review of The Dissolution of Small Worlds.
Teleread, https://teleread.com/ (July 5, 2014), Paul St. John Mackintosh, review of Forever, in Pieces.
Kurt Fawver lives in that dark land of swamps and simulacra known as Florida, but is originally from the Pennsylvanian wasteland that lies between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. When he's not writing nightmarish arcana, he's either teaching college students the joys of reading Clive Barker's Books of Blood or trying to corral two semi-feral chihuahuas with his ever-patient wife. Kurt owns a Ph.D. in literature, but won't require that you call him "doctor" unless you're a complete douchebag or an unrepentant philistine. His favorite cryptid is the Mongolian death worm and his favorite zombie movie is Pontypool.
About Kurt Fawver
Kurt Fawver is a purveyor of wonder and terror, the grotesque and the preternatural (that is to say, he writes horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, and whatever other weirdness wanders into his head). He's also a scholar of the literary and cinematic arts and, on occasion, masquerades as a gentleman (though this is purely to lull others into a false sense of security).
He hopes you enjoy the bittersweet and sometimes venomous fruits of his labor!
You can find Kurt at any number of fine locations online:
www.facebook.com/kfawver
www.kurtfawver.com
I am a horror/dark fantasy author and a doctor of English literature.
The Dissolution of Small Worlds
Publishers Weekly. 265.22 (May 28, 2018): p77+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Dissolution of Small Worlds
Kurt Fawver. Lethe, $18 trade paper (264p) ISBN 978-1-59021-651-4
This collection of 14 short, gruesome takes on existential terror likes to make it personal. Apocalypses, when they come, as to the inhabitants of a nursing home ("A Silence of Starlings"), bring a familiar, sour taste of disappointment and abandonment. The young are no more likely than the old to escape terrifying fates, whether working on a school's "Special Collections" or trying to merely complete a physics degree ("All That is Thrown Away"). The universe, though uncaring, is not unmindful, which makes each morsel of existence seem a toy for unaware tots, to be taken away at the whim of immensely powerful beings ("The Cone of Heaven"). Fawver deploys metafictional reflections, turning a trapped play audience ("The Gods in their Seats, Unblinking") or an author tortured by a publisher ("An Interview with Samuel X. Slayden") into clear reader surrogates. The most successful tale, "The Final Correspondence of Sabrina Locker" (original to the collection), takes the traditional motifs of Lovecraft country--shunned farms, cryptic locals, curses from out of time and space--and makes them scream again with both fear and wonder. This is a satisfying exploration of "seething, conscious torment." (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Dissolution of Small Worlds." Publishers Weekly, 28 May 2018, p. 77+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541638812/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d44fc57f. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A541638812
The Dissolution of Small Worlds: Bold New Horror from a Rising Star
September 14, 2018
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Mike D
Introducing Kurt Fawver and his work is quite difficult. Undoubtedly, many horror readers will be familiar with his name due to his contribution to last year's critically acclaimed Looming Low Volume 1 and his recent Shirley Jackson Award win for "The Convexity of Our Youth." Other readers, myself included, came to be introduced to Kurt Fawver via his contribution of "Gods in Their Seats, Unblinking" to the Vastarien Literary Journal. In fact, Fawver's play was selected as the opening piece of fiction for the inaugural issue of the journal. It is the perfect opening to showcase what Vastarien strives to be, a place for experimental and avant-garde works that are a response to cult horror icon Thomas Ligotti's body of work. Whichever way you became acquainted with Fawver's work, you likely had the same three reactions that I did. Wow, what was that? Who is this Fawver guy? Where can I find more? Thankfully, Lethe Press has recently released The Dissolution of Small Worlds, Kurt Fawver's second single author collection containing both the before mentioned works and many new and unpublished ones. We received a copy here at Signal Horizon and we devoured it with glee.
Kurt Fawver's before mentioned short stories, "The Convexity of Our Youth" and "Gods in Their Seats, Unblinking" have both generated quite a bit of attention, but interestingly enough each work exemplifies the opposite extremes of Fawver's work in The Dissolution of Small Worlds. While both are squarely inside the nebulous borders that form what has become known as Weird Literature, "Convexity" is both nuanced and timely, while still open to multiple reader interpretations. Like many of Fawver's works, subtext and context play central roles, yet here his use of lurid horrific detail is muted and the narration takes on a more detached and solemn tone. "Gods in their Seats, Unblinking" takes the opposite tact, with a removed, almost academic narrative, slowing becoming something far more personal and intimate. This is reinforced by the choice to present this piece as a one act play written by another fictional author and the skillful addition of some choice imagery. While both works deserve the praise they have received, and perhaps even more, a reader that has experienced one and not the other is missing out on the tremendous dynamic range that Fawver is capable and displays in full force in The Dissolution of Small Worlds.
While "Gods in Their Seats, Unblinking" was chosen to introduce the world to unique fiction that is on store for readers in Vastarien, it is firmly nestled in the very middle of The Dissolution of Small Worlds. Instead, a previously unpublished piece entitled "The Myth of You" serves as the opener. Fawver uses very specific literary tools to take the reader out on a limb, including the use of an unconventional point of view, extremely repulsive and horrific descriptions, and a keen use of metatextual references. "The Myth of You" is a bold statement which argues: if you are looking for the same old escapist horror fare, the kind that can deliver thrills but doesn't require much effort on the part of the reader, look elsewhere. This is going to be a much different kind of read.
With the "The Myth of You" setting the stage, we are then led into "Special Collections" which was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. "Special Collections" is a unique and highly rewarding tale, told in a very seldom used first person plural point of view. Rather than being a mere novelty, this technique adds to the mystique and tension of this piece. During an interview with Kurt Fawver on the very excellent This Is Horror podcast, "Special Collections" was described as a story about a single setting, in the same vein as Adam Nevill's "Hippocampus." I went back to my copy of The Best Horror of the Year Volume 8 and reread that particular piece and while the comparison is apt, "Special Collections" contains not only some of the magic that makes "Hippocampus" work, but also contains some of the ambiguity that makes a story like "The Red Tower" by Thomas Ligotti or "The Indoor Swamp" by Jon Padgett stick in your head long after reading. All of these works rely on not only the setting as a character in and of itself, but that the extreme focus on the setting leaves so much of the narrative unanswered the story becomes fertile ground for the audience's imaginations and creativity. Clearly not your standard mass market horror fare, but when it works as well as it does in "Special Collections" the experience is one that is truly otherworldly.
Another facet of Fawver's creativity that is on display in "Special Collections" and again in "Marrowvale" is his ability to take the cursed or out of place object trope to whole new levels. Not content with the mysterious object to be a sacrificial dagger or ancient idol, Fawver spins some of the most unique, weird, and imaginative out of place objects into his stories. Then again, in our genre the horror isn't the object itself and it never really has been. Fawver knows this and uses it to tremendous effect, it is as if he is saying to the reader "look here, I could take you down that tired road better than most, but I have something even more frightening in store for you." Throughout The Dissolution of Small Worlds I was surprised again and again at the deftness which the basic horror tale is raised into something that reflects a horror that is more subtle, universal, and frankly meaningful.
There is a huge breadth of range in The Dissolution of Small Worlds, ranging from stories that are more in your face, "Every Weeknight at Seven and Seven-Thirty," to tales that are much more subtle, like "A Silence of Starlings." Many are highly metatextual, "An Interview with Samuel X. Slayden" being a prime example, yet others, like "Cone of Heaven," purposefully distance themselves from context to create something that is absolutely new. Other readers may notice, as I have, that when Fawver stumbles it is not because he tried to take us too far off the traditional horror path and blaze his own trail to parts unknown. No, when Fawver stumbles it is because he has not tried to take us far enough. His best works use context and metatext to ground the story and springboard the reader into places that are uncharted and terrifying. These works burn so brightly that they overshadow some of the others, which is unfortunate because each work included in The Dissolution of Small Worlds is an example in themselves of solid horror storytelling. It's just that the best stories are so great that they make some of the others look a bit basic in comparison.
Is this particular collection for you? Again, it is obvious from the first page of The Dissolution of Small Worlds that if you are looking for a rehash of horror that has been successful before, keep looking. If you are like me, constantly on the hunt for works that don't just change the backdrop, but really do take us in new directions and to uncharted corners of the vast landscape of what horror can be, The Dissolution of Small Worlds is a must have addition to your bookshelf or Kindle library. If you want a sneak peak at where horror is headed in the future, don't delay and chart a course to this rising literary star on the horizon.
Interested in purchasing The Dissolution of Small Worlds? Head on over to Lethe Press and buy your copy today. While you are there, you can also check their impressive catalog of strange, eerie, a queer works that they champion every day. Also, be sure to read Kurt Fawver's story notes that he has been posting on his website. If you are looking for a copy for your Kindle or if you find Amazon a more convenient way to order physical books, please consider clicking on our affiliate link to the right. It won't cost you anything additional and it helps us to keep the lighthouse shining here at Signal Horizon. If you want to read more of our ongoing coverage of the horror and dark science fiction genres, click on the follow us link to the right and connect with us via Facebook, Twitter, or our newsletter.
FOREVER, IN PIECES BY KURT FAWVER REVIEW!!
by Kris Lugosi
Dec 13, 2013, 1:54 am
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A kaleidoscope of swirling visions and beautiful story telling that will drag you into the dark empty abyss of the human soul where in lies everything and nothing. Forever, In Pieces will leave you feeling just that.
**18 Stories total; not all reviewed**
Prologue to a Phantasmagorical Tragedy: A very good story to open the collection with. Short and sweet.
The Waves From Afar: I loved the visuals in this story. A man struggles to understand a strange phenomenon plaguing everyone drawn to the vast ocean of swirling colors and undulating waves of hypnotic majesty. What this sea of alien colors is hiding or what reason it has for it’s grasp on all the people that die and then come to stand in it’s trance is unknown. All any of the survivors can do is watch as thousands of loved ones succomb to this fate and wait and hope for a real goodbye. There is a helplessness tone to this story and the Tide reminds me very much of the Black Plague’s reign of terror.
For The Unhaunted: Haunted houses are not normally sought after to start a family in. Disclosures are made by realtors as to if there was any awful traumas or deaths within the walls that are to hold happy memories of bouncing babies and celebrated holidays with growing families. But what if, the standard was reversed? What if the only thing that would make you feel whole and just like everybody else was to have a ghost that roamed your halls. Where glasses broke and things are knocked off counter tops by something unseen….but what if channeling a ghost to your home was harder than it appeared. What lengths would you go to obtain your own haunted house? I pictured this very short story played out like a Tim Burton animated short.
With A Ribbon On Top: One of my favorite short stories. We all have heard the song Santa Claus is Coming to Town. A rather eerie christmas jingle about the jolly old man watching your every mover and deciding if you were ultimately bad this year or if you were good. Never did it dawn on me to see the sinister side of this song and turn it into something dark and punishable. The Crimson Intruder comes at night to every home, doling out rewards and punishments as he sees fits. This was exceptionally written.
Brief Repose Moments Before a Gruesome and Certain Death: Perfect title. Perfect.
The Binary Must Prevail: A Brief History: What would you do if your chair suddenly become a sentient being? Complete with full thoughts, feelings, and emotions? Whatever you would do, the author of this story I believe paints exactly what the human race would do. The lines become blurred in whether or not an inanimate object has any rights and or independence from it’s owner. However, just as we humans are known , if a sentient being (no matter the form it takes on) wants equal rights, it will banned together with like minded beings and obtain what they want at all costs.
May Old Acquaintance Be Forgot: It’s ten minutes till midnight. Ten minutes till the ball drops and new beginnings bring in the new year. Ten minutes until something terrible will happen. Dan is the only one who knows what will happen to the human race once the ball drops and the clock strikes midnight and it gives twisted meaning to “new beginnings.” A disturbing modern day Noah’s Ark tale.
Birthday: This reminded me of a an old black and white Hitchcock or Twilight Zone episode. Dark and disturbing with fast pace confusion that in turn makes you panic right along side the characters.
Critical Theory: Sad little short story.
Four Is Enough and Take All Your Troubles were really disturbing to me. In Four Enough amputation is a way of making money and the
uses for the parts is interesting but the lengths that some people go to for the money they need is uncomfortable to say the least. Take All Your Troubles starts off so beautifully positive and nice and wonderful and then just ends with a literal depressing and upsetting explosion of sorrow.
Bolt: My question as to what would people who don’t really have real world skills do in a zombie apocalypse is now answered! Take Derrick aka Bolt for instance. An athlete and passionate baseball player and lover of the league. So when riots break out suggesting a zombie like outbreak, Derrick the Bolt must learn to survive.
Lessons: If you like the the concept of Dexter and his father’s relationship, this is a nice little gem.
Forever, In Pieces: Beautiful story. Start to finish. This is a much longer story than the others and we are taken back to February 14, 1986. Valentines Day. The day that changes Ben’s life. Forever is more than just a secret admirer and the gifts Ben receives from Forevever every Valentine’s Day for the next 22 years is morbidly beautiful and disturbing. I really liked this tale and once again the style of which the author writes is absolutely wonderful.
Rub-a-Dub-Dub:
Three men in a tub. And who do you think they were?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker were all cast out to sea.
In a tub, they floated on and on regailing
with tales of how they came to be.
The butcher with the cleaver, just wanted his revenge.
When all the bishops seized his daughter to collect the stolen knives,
the butcher vowed to all aloud that he would take their lives.
He managed to kill and slash and dice,
a few but not all and this did not suffice.
So off he was sent out to the great thing in the sea
to join the demise of not two but of three.
The baker does not want revenge nor does he leave things be,
for the baker you see is the bringer of relief and deems himself worthy.
To ease the pain of fellow patrons who’ve fallen under the reign of Thalak
Once freshly baked, he posions the bread and his reasons are symbolic.
So off he was sent out to the great thing in the sea
to join the demise of not two but of three.
The Candlestick maker with his shadows and mystery,
his hiding something much more sinister than either two’s history.
He speaks of the Void and the promise of exploring ‘Why’?
but the answer to the offer is, “I would rather die.”
So with the power of the Void within him,
the candlestick maker continues with his task out to sea,
to join the demise of not two but of one, for that’s the way it had to be.
**Many apologies for the terrible attempt at reviewing that story via nursery rhyme!!**
This book was a great psychological collection of horror stories. Very dark tone to all the stories accompanied by even darker amazing illustrations by Luke Spooner of Carrion House. Amazing artwork and amazing stories. I highly recommend picking up an actual copy of this book. A PDF and kindle just wont do it justice. This is a book for the shelf. It went right next to my Poppy Z. Brite books.
Meet the Author: Kurt Fawver
For more on Kurt, you can visit his website:
http://kurtfawver.com/Home_Page.html
AND to purchase this awesome book:
http://www.amazon.com/Forever-Pieces-Kurt-Fawver/dp/0615903967/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386920644&sr=8-1&keywords=Forever%2C+in+pieces
Meet the Illustrater: Luke Spooner of Carrion House (Bio taken from carrionhouse.com)
Luke Spooner a.k.a. ‘Carrion House’ currently lives and works in the South of England. Having recently graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a first class degree he is now a full time illustrator for just about any project that peaks his interest. Despite regular forays into children’s books and fairy tales his true love lies in anything macabre, melancholy or dark in nature and essence. He believes that the job of putting someone else’s words into a visual form, to accompany and support their text, is a massive responsibility as well as being something he truly treasures
http://www.carrionhouse.com/index.htm (photo via carrionhouse.com)
Book review: Forever, in Pieces, by Kurt Fawver, Villipede Publications
By Paul St John Mackintosh - July 5, 2014 381 0
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U.S. independent Villipede Publications describes itself as “one the finest specialty publishers in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres,” and produces not only fine limited editions of work by major horror, fantasy, and science fiction writers, as well as print and ebook publications of some excellent new authors. One of these is Kurt Fawver, whose first collection Forever, in Pieces has been received with near adulation by some fellow writers and critics, with plaudits like “exquisite in every possible way” and “perfectly balanced between beautiful and vicious, clever and dark” being bandied about.
The ebook presentation is ambitious, with diverse fonts and illustrations by Luke Spooner, some in full color, that display impressively even on a small screen but occasionally impede navigation. And you need to be able to find your way around. At 18 stories in 252 print-equivalent pages, it’s not hard to see that some of the stories are very concise indeed. Stories with titles like “Brief Repose Moments before a Gruesome and Certain Death” are about exactly that. A few are Lovecraftian, but rarely overtly so. Most concern “an insane turn within an equally insane universe,” and along the way bring some really appalling horrors. Don’t read “May Old Acquaintance Be Forgot” if you’re too easily upset, for example, or “Birth Day.”
“We are a species eternally trying to rise above our fragility and our fallibility, to master an indifferent or outright hostile universe, and, most often, we fail,” writes Fawver in his introduction. That might lead you to expect high-flown and deliberately difficult writing, but it’s not so. There are some more highly wrought stories, but most of Fawver’s prose is straightforward and simple, especially from the first-person viewpoint of his protagonists – just one of the traits he shares with Kafka. There’s plenty of mordant irony too, shading over easily into poignant loss or grim horror. In fact, his style is mostly taut and contained, confining the delirious and atrocious subject matter all the more effectively.
Fawver deliberately invites comparison with “the most banal zombie film ever made,” and does it with style. Sometimes he literally stands genre cliche on its head, as with “For the Unhaunted,” which focuses on the only unhaunted house in a spirit-infested neighborhood. (Needless to say, things progress to murder, and worse.) Fawver is also a dab hand at pace and timing, progressively racheting up the discomfort level in the manner of masters of the genre. Much of his fiction actually hinges on profound existential disquiet – not what you expect to read on the jacket of a Stephen King novel, but a posture that’s able to give quite a number of shocks and squick moments along the way.
“I want my readers to come away from my stories with a chink in their preconceptions, and a tremor in their beliefs,'” Fawver concludes. “If my stories also force you to exercise your intellect – even just a little bit – then I’ve truly succeeded as a writer.” Mission accomplished.