Rhys Henry Hughes (born 1966,

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales) is a Welsh fantasy writer and essayist.

Career

Born in Cardiff, Hughes has written in a variety of forms, from short stories to novels. His long novel ''Engelbrecht Again!'' is a sequel to

Maurice Richardson Maurice Lane Richardson (1907–1978) was an English journalist and short story writer. Early life and education Richardson was born to a wealthy family; his father, a successful stockjobber, "after retirement and some financial ups and downs" ...

's 1950 cult classic ''The Exploits of Engelbrecht'' and is the most radical of Hughes's books, making extensive use of lipograms, typographical tricks, coded passages and other

OuLiPo Oulipo (, short for ; roughly translated as "workshop of potential literature", stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It wa ...

techniques. His major project consisted of authoring a 1,000-story cycle of both tightly and loosely interconnected tales, a project that was completed in 2022.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''The Percolated Stars: An Astro-Caffeine Romp in Three Cups Featuring Batavus Droogstoppel Merchant and Scientist and Bourgeois Monster: One Lump or Two?'' (RazorBlade Press; 2003) * ''Engelbrecht Again!'' (Dead Letter Press; 2008; ) * ''Mister Gum; Or: The Possibly Phoney Profundity of Puerility'' (Dog Horn Publishing; 2009) * ''Twisthorn Bellow'' (Atomic Fez Publishing; 2010; ) * ''The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange'' (Meteor House; 2013; ) * ''The Young Dictator'' (Pillar International Publishing; 2013; ) * ''Captains Stupendous; Or, the Fantastical Family Faraway'' (expansion of ''The Coandă Effect: A Corto Maltese Adventure'') (Telos Moonrise; 2014; * ''The Pilgrim's Regress'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; ) * ''Cloud Farming in Wales'' (Snuggly Books; 2017; ) * ''The Honeymoon Gorillas'' (Bizarro Pulp Press; 2018; ) * ''The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm'' (Telos Publishing; 2023; ) * ''Growl at the Moon'' (Telos Publishing; 2024; ) * ''The Devil's Halo'' (Elsewhen Press; 2025; )

Novellas

* ''Eyelidiad'' (1996) * ''Rawhead & Bloody Bones'' (1998) * ''Elusive Plato'' (1998) * ''The Crystal Cosmos'' (

PS Publishing PS Publishing is an independent book publisher based in Hornsea, UK. Background PS Publishing was founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther.Tartarus Press Tartarus Press is an independent book publisher in Coverdale in North Yorkshire, England.

, 1995; ) * ''The Smell of Telescopes'' (Tartarus Press, 2000; ) * ''Stories from a Lost Anthology'' (Tartarus Press, 2002; ) * ''Nowhere Near Milk Wood'' (1997, expanded 2002) * ''Journeys Beyond Advice'' (2002) * ''A New Universal History of Infamy'' (2004): a parody of and homage to

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo ( ; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish literature, Spanish-language and international literatur ...

's collection ''

A Universal History of Infamy ''A Universal History of Infamy'', or ''A Universal History of Iniquity'' (original Spanish title: ''Historia universal de la infamia''), is a collection of short stories by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, first published in 1935, and revised ...

''. * ''The Less Lonely Planet'' (Humdrumming, Ltd.; May 2008; ) * ''The Postmodern Mariner'' (Screaming Dreams; June 2008; ) * ''The Brothel Creeper'' (Gray Friar Press; March 2011; ) * ''Link Arms With Toads!'' (Chômu Press; May 2011; ) * ''Tallest Stories'' (Eibonvale Press; January 2013; ) * ''The Just Not So Stories'' (Exaggerated Press; October 2013; ) * ''More Than a Feline'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; December 2013; ) * ''Flash in the Pantheon'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; ) * ''Rhysop's Fables'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; ) * ''Bone Idle in the Charnel House'' (Hippocampus Press; 2014; ) * ''Orpheus on the Underground'' (Tartarus Press; 2015; ) * ''Mirrors in the Deluge'' (Elsewhen Press; 2015; ) * ''Brutal Pantomimes'' (Egaeus Press; 2016; ) * ''Salty Kiss Island'' (Immanion Press; 2017; ) * ''How Many Times?'' (Eibonvale Press; 2018; ) * ''Crepuscularks and Phantomimes'' (Raphus Press; 2020) * ''Weirdly Out West'' (Black Scat Books; 2021; ) * ''Utopia in Trouble'' (Raphus Press; 2021) * ''Comfy Rascals'' (Raphus Press;2022) * ''The Senile Pagodas'' (Centipede Press; 2022; ) * ''Adventures With Immortality'' (Oddness Books; 2023; )

Poetry

* ''The Gloomy Seahorse'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; ) * ''Bunny Queue'' (ImpSpired Press; 2021; ) * ''Robot Poems'' (Gibbon Moon Books; 2022; )

Ebooks

* ''The Rhys Hughes Fantastic MEGAPACK®'' (Wildside Press; 2022)

References

External links

The Spoons That Are My Ears!
Rhys Hughes's

weblog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

Rhys Hughes, the man who laughs at goldfish
interview by Steve Redwood
Interview at ''Weird Fiction Review'', 7 March 2016
1966 births Living people British science fiction writers Welsh male essayists Welsh male novelists Welsh male short story writers Welsh fantasy writers Welsh horror writers Welsh science fiction writers Writers from Cardiff 21st-century Welsh male writers 21st-century Welsh novelists 21st-century Welsh essayists 21st-century Welsh short story writers {{sf-writer-stub