It's difficult to believe or understand it, but this collection, published by New Directions in 2018, is the first and (to date) only translation of Amparo Dávila's books into English. Considering that she'd been publishing work since 1950, often to considerable acclaim, 68 years is an unconscionably long time to wait.
The Houseguest and Other Stories is a truly outstanding collection of literary weird fiction. After reading the first few stories, her pattern emerges: each piece is built around a blank spot of the highest importance. There is always one detail that is conspicuous, and vastly more effective, by its absence. The reader reaches the end of the story and realizes that they never quite knew just who this one person was, or just what had happened to this one character, and that single omission sets the whole story ringing. I don't think it's too much to say that The Houseguest and Other Stories is a milestone and a very tantalizing introduction to a writer whose work should be better known and more available.
Michael Cisco published these novels: The Divinity Student, The Golem, The Traitor, The Tyrant, The Great Lover, The Narrator, CELEBRANT, MEMBER, ANIMAL MONEY, and UNLANGUAGE ... a short story collection called Secret Hours.... and a novella called THE KNIFE DANCE. His short fiction has appeared in: The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases, Lovecraft Unbound, Black Wings, Blood and Other Cravings, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, THE WEIRD, The Grimscribe's Puppets, LACKINGTON'S, Postscripts to Darkness, Penumbrae, Aickman's Heirs, and Mechanical Animals, among others. His scholarly work has appeared in Lovecraft Studies, The Weird Fiction Review, Iranian Studies, Lovecraft and Influence, The Lovecraftian Poe, and New Directions in Supernatural Horror Literature. He has translated stories by Julio Cortazar, Marcel Bealu, and Alfonso Reyes.
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