Brian Evenson (born August 12, 1966, in Ames, Iowa) is an American academic and writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction. He has received degrees from Brigham Young University (BA) and the University of Washington (MA and PhD). After leaving a teaching position at BYU, he held positions at Oklahoma State University, Syracuse University and University of Denver. He is currently the Chair of the Literary Arts Program at Brown University. He is also a senior editor of the Conjunctions literary journal published by Bard College and has participated in Naropa University's Summer Writing Program and The Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers.
Formerly a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon Church), Evenson left both the Church and a teaching position at Brigham Young University following controversy surrounding his first book, Altmann's Tongue.
Evenson is a prolific writer of short stories, novellas, and novels. He has also translated several works of literature from French into English. His own works of fiction often feature characters struggling with moral, religious, and epistemological problems. Violence and black humor are common elements of his narratives. His work is subtly philosophical, many of his recurrent themes of virtuality and "sensation" being traceable to Deleuze & Guattari's Capitalism and Schizophrenia, and several of his books have epigraphs from philosopher Alphonso Lingis. Although most often published by small presses specializing in literary fiction, some of Evenson's work has also appeared in the horror genre press and he has contributed a media tie-in novel to the Aliens franchise and the Dead Space video game franchise.
Evenson's work has been compared to that of J. G. Ballard, Jorge Luis Borges, Paul Bowles, Franz Kafka, William S. Burroughs, Cormac McCarthy, Robert Coover and Edgar Allan Poe (among others).
Last Days (2009, Underland Press' debut novel, expanded from The Brotherhood of Mutilation)
Fugue State (2009) (with illustrations by Zak Sally)
"Pariah" in Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (2009) as B.K. Evenson
Baby Leg: A Novella (2009)
Dead Space: Martyr as by B.K. Evenson (2010)
Works of Non-fiction
Understanding Robert Coover (2003)
Works of Translation
The Passion of Martin Fissel Brandt by Christian Gailly (2002)
Giacometti: Three Essays by Jacques Dupin (2003)
Mountain R by Jacques Jouet (2004)
Red Haze by Christian Gailly [co-translated with David Beus] (2005)
Electric Flesh by Christophe Claro (2006)
Donogoo-Tonka, or the Miracles of Science by Jules Romain (2009)
Recordings
Altmann's Tongue by Brian Evenson with Xingu Hill & Tamarin (2005). Currently available from many legal mp3 sites (Amie Street, Emusic, Itunes, Amazon etc). Also, available as a CD.