With illustrations for each chapter heading, plus a fully illustrated version of the story "Dread," by indie musician and comic artist Zak Sally, this collection could break Brian Evenson out from cult status to a real pop culture phenomenon (ala early Stephen King and George Saunders), while still keeping him firmly in the literary ranks-indeed, some of the post-apocalyptic stories in this collection feel very much like shorter versions of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. On the genre front, Evenson's last novel, The Open Curtain, received Edgar and International Horror Guild nominations, his new horror novel Last Days, will have been the first book published by Underland Press (scheduled now for January 2009), and his new fans should be legion by the time Fugue State is released. This collection contains the story "Mudder Tongue," which was read at Symphony Space and broadcast on numerous NPR affiliates by actor David Strathairn, who played Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck.

1. Large galley printing. 2. Additional marketing will include featuring the book at BEA with signing appearances by Brian Evenson, and pre-publication serialization. 3. Our publicity efforts will focus on genre publications, bloggers (including an author "playlist" for David Gutowski's Largehearted Boy and a likely write-up on the LA Times Jacket Copy blog), comics journals, and traditional book and culture media. 4. The tour will likely be expanded to include the Midwest and West Coast, and Brian Evenson will be making some appearances with another Coffee House spring author, Mary Caponegro. The two of them should help generate even better tour-related pr than usual. 5. Author web site: www.brianevenson.com

About the Author
Praised by Peter Straub for going "furthest out on the sheerest, least sheltered narrative precipice," Brian Evenson is the author of eight previous books of fiction, including the Edgar Award-nominated novel The Open Curtain and the International Horror Guild Award-winning collection, The Wavering Knife. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island where he directs Brown University's Literary Arts Program. Zak Sally is the author of the graphic novel, Recidivist, nominated for two Eisner Awards and named one of SPIN magazine's "favorite things." He is also the author of Fantagraphic Books's Sammy the Mouse series, the former bassist of the band Low, and the publisher of La Mano press in Minneapolis.

Reviews
"Brian Evenson is one of my favorite writers. The stories in this collection will thrill, unsettle, and captivate. Like lanterns in dark rooms, paper boats carried down on subterranean waters, they lead the reader into mysterious and perilous territory. Read at your own risk." -Kelly Link "Brian Evenson is the Donald Barthelme of psychological horror." -Los Angeles Times "Evenson accesses dark, unusual facets of human frailty, powerlessness and fear. . . . This intense, nightmarish collection captures the fear of night terrors, when one wakes in the middle of the night, unable to move." -Publishers Weekly "The specific genius of Fugue State rests in subtlety, in Evenson's ability to maintain suspense, dread and paranoia through utter linguistic control." -Time Out New York (five stars) "[Fugue State] brings us into contact with thinking itself, with a sense of terror that seems to multiply plainly, and with the most difficult kinds of truth."-The Believer, "5x5: Brian Evenson" "Laughter can be an effective tool of the horror writer, and Evenson is its finest practitioner." -Time Out Chicago "These 19 satisfying and surreal stories plumb the psyches of murderers, paranoids, frightened children, bitter ex-husbands, religious zealots in post-apocalyptic worlds and people whose fleeting sanity will be gone by story's end. Evenson takes even his most fanciful characters seriously even as he partakes of gallows humor; this book is as packed with subtly hilarious sentences as haunting images." -The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Brian Evenson is one of my favorite writers. The stories in this collection will thrill, unsettle, and captivate. Like lanterns in dark rooms, paper boats carried down on subterranean waters, they lead the reader into mysterious and perilous territory. Read at your own risk." Kelly Link "Brian Evenson is the Donald Barthelme of psychological horror." Los Angeles Times "Evenson accesses dark, unusual facets of human frailty, powerlessness and fear. . . . This intense, nightmarish collection captures the fear of night terrors, when one wakes in the middle of the night, unable to move." Publishers Weekly "The specific genius of Fugue State rests in subtlety, in Evenson's ability to maintain suspense, dread and paranoia through utter linguistic control." Time Out New York (five stars) "[Fugue State] brings us into contact with thinking itself, with a sense of terror that seems to multiply plainly, and with the most difficult kinds of truth." The Believer, "5x5: Brian Evenson" "Laughter can be an effective tool of the horror writer, and Evenson is its finest practitioner." Time Out Chicago "These 19 satisfying and surreal stories plumb the psyches of murderers, paranoids, frightened children, bitter ex-husbands, religious zealots in post-apocalyptic worlds and people whose fleeting sanity will be gone by story's end. Evenson takes even his most fanciful characters seriously even as he partakes of gallows humor; this book is as packed with subtly hilarious sentences as haunting images." The Cleveland Plain Dealer



Book Information
ISBN 9781566892254
Author Brian Evenson
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Coffee House Press
Publisher Coffee House Press
Weight(grams) 298g
Dimensions(mm) 231mm * 155mm * 18mm