# Rhys Hughes

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{{short description|Welsh writer (born 1966)}}
{{about||the Welsh footballer|Rhys Hughes (footballer)}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{notability |date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [:Template:Infobox writer/doc](/source/%3ATemplate%3AInfobox_writer%2Fdoc) -->
| name        = Rhys Henry Hughes
| image       = Summerrhys.jpg
| imagesize   = 200px
| caption     = 
| pseudonym   = 
| birth_date  = 1966
| birth_place = [Cardiff](/source/Cardiff), Wales
| death_date  = 
| death_place = 
| occupation  = Novelist, short story writer
| nationality = Welsh
| period      = 
| genre       = [Absurdism](/source/Absurdism), [Fantasy](/source/Fantasy_literature), [OuLiPo](/source/OuLiPo), [Science fiction](/source/Science_fiction)
| subject     = 
| movement    = 
| influences  = 
| influenced  = 
| signature   = 
| website     = {{url|rhysaurus.blogspot.com}}
}}

'''Rhys Henry Hughes''' (born 1966, [Cardiff](/source/Cardiff), Wales) is a Welsh fantasy writer, playwright and essayist.<ref name="ISFB">{{cite web|title=Rhys Hughes|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Rhys_Hughes|website=The Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>

==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](/source/Maurice_Richardson)'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](/source/Oulipo) techniques.<ref name="ESF">{{cite web|title=Hughes, Rhys|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hughes_rhys|website=the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>

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.<ref name=ESF />

His books have had introductions and afterwords provided by Michael Moorcock, Jeff VanderMeer, A.A. Attanasio, Michael Cisco, Paul Di Filippo, John Clute, E.F. Bleiler and others.

==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)<ref name=ESF />
* ''Engelbrecht Again!'' (Dead Letter Press; 2008; {{ISBN|978-0-9796335-4-6}})
* ''Mister Gum; Or: The Possibly Phoney Profundity of Puerility'' (Dog Horn Publishing; 2009)<ref name=ESF />
* ''Twisthorn Bellow'' (Atomic Fez Publishing; 2010; {{ISBN|978-0-9811597-1-3}})<ref name=ESF />
* ''The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange'' (Meteor House; 2013; {{ISBN|978-0-983746-13-3}})<ref name=ESF />
* ''The Young Dictator'' (Pillar International Publishing; 2013; {{ISBN|978-0-9574598-3-0}})<ref name=ESF />
* ''Captains Stupendous; Or, the Fantastical Family Faraway'' (expansion of ''The Coandă Effect: A Corto Maltese Adventure'') (Telos Moonrise; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-84583-886-7}}<ref name=ESF />
* ''The Pilgrim's Regress'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; {{ISBN|979-8-697441-96-1}})
* ''Cloud Farming in Wales'' (Snuggly Books; 2017; {{ISBN|978-1-943813-36-0}})
* ''The Honeymoon Gorillas'' (Bizarro Pulp Press; 2018; {{ISBN|978-1-947654-55-6}})
* ''The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm'' (Telos Publishing; 2023; {{ISBN|978-1-845832-12-4}})
* ''Growl at the Moon'' (Telos Publishing; 2024; {{ISBN|978-1-845832-38-4}})
* ''The Devil's Halo'' (Elsewhen Press; 2025; {{ISBN|978-1-915304-60-5}})
* ''Trumpet Face'' (Incunabula Media; 2025; {{ISBN|978-1-300047-00-1}})

=== Novellas ===

* ''Eyelidiad'' (1996)<ref name="Joshi368">{{cite book|author=S. T. Joshi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNXZZdER5mQC&pg=PA366|title=Icons of Horror And the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of our Worst Nightmares - Volume 1|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2006|isbn=0-313-33781-0|page=368}}</ref>
* ''Rawhead & Bloody Bones'' (1998)<ref name="Clute">{{cite book|author=John Clute|title=Pardon This Intrusion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gWZoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT169|year=2016|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-1-4732-1979-3|page=169}}</ref>
* ''Elusive Plato'' (1998)<ref name="Clute" />
* ''The Crystal Cosmos'' ([PS Publishing](/source/PS_Publishing); December 2007; {{ISBN|978-1-905834-98-3}})
* ''The Coandă Effect'' (Ex Occidente Press; November 2010)
* ''The Sticky Situations of Zwicky Fingers'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-291738-16-2}})
* ''World Muses'' (Ex Occidente Press; 2017)
* ''Students of Myself'' (Elsewhen Press; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-911409-69-4}})
* ''My Rabbit's Shadow Looks Like a Hand'' (Eibonvale Press; 2021; {{ISBN|978-1-913766-05-4}})
* ''The Ghost Loser'' (Gibbon Moon Books; 2022; {{ISBN|978-1-739797-14-0}})
* ''Three Novellas (The Darktree Wheel, The Impossible Inferno, The Swine Taster)'' (Gibbon Moon Books; 2022; {{ISBN|978-1-739797-13-3}})
* ''Robots in Love'' (Eibonvale Press; 2025; {{ISBN|978-1-913766-34-4}})

=== Collections ===

* ''Worming the Harpy and Other Bitter Pills'' ([Tartarus Press](/source/Tartarus_Press), 1995;<ref name=Joshi368 /> {{ISBN|978-1-872621-20-3}})
* ''The Smell of Telescopes'' (Tartarus Press, 2000; {{ISBN|1-872621-44-9}})<ref name=Joshi368 />
* ''Stories from a Lost Anthology'' (Tartarus Press, 2002; {{ISBN|978-1-872621-68-5}})<ref name="Clute" />
* ''Nowhere Near Milk Wood'' (1997, expanded 2002)<ref name="Clute" />
* ''Journeys Beyond Advice'' (2002)<ref name="Clute" />
* ''A New Universal History of Infamy'' (2004): a parody of and homage to [Jorge Luis Borges](/source/Jorge_Luis_Borges)'s collection ''[A Universal History of Infamy](/source/A_Universal_History_of_Infamy)''.<ref name="Clute"/>
* ''The Less Lonely Planet'' (Humdrumming, Ltd.; May 2008; {{ISBN|978-1-905532-52-0}})
* ''The Postmodern Mariner'' (Screaming Dreams; June 2008; {{ISBN|978-0-9555185-2-2}})
* ''The Brothel Creeper'' (Gray Friar Press; March 2011; {{ISBN|978-1-906331-22-1}})<ref>{{Cite web|first=Kate|last=Onyett|title=Rhys Hughes, Brothel Creeper (2011)|url=http://reviews.futurefire.net/2011/09/rhys-hughes-brothel-creeper-2011.html|website=The Future Fire|date=24 September 2011|access-date=21 January 2025|language=en}}</ref>
* ''Link Arms With Toads!'' (Chômu Press; May 2011; {{ISBN|978-1-907681-08-0}})
* ''Tallest Stories'' (Eibonvale Press; January 2013; {{ISBN|978-1-908125-16-3}})
* ''The Just Not So Stories'' (Exaggerated Press; October 2013; {{ISBN|978-1-291558-20-3}})
* ''More Than a Feline'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; December 2013; {{ISBN|978-1-291619-27-0}})
* ''Flash in the Pantheon'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-291731-03-3}})
* ''Rhysop's Fables'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-291738-73-5}})
* ''Bone Idle in the Charnel House'' (Hippocampus Press; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-61498-087-2}})
* ''Orpheus on the Underground'' (Tartarus Press; 2015; {{ISBN|978-1-905784-71-4}})
* ''Mirrors in the Deluge'' (Elsewhen Press; 2015; {{ISBN|978-1-908168-65-8}})
* ''Brutal Pantomimes'' (Egaeus Press; 2016; {{ISBN|978-0-957160-69-9}})
* ''Salty Kiss Island'' (Immanion Press; 2017; {{ISBN|978-1-907737-77-0}})
* ''How Many Times?'' (Eibonvale Press; 2018; {{ISBN|978-1-908125-60-6}})
* ''Crepuscularks and Phantomimes'' (Raphus Press; 2020) 
* ''Weirdly Out West'' (Black Scat Books; 2021; {{ISBN|978-1-735764-61-0}})
* ''Utopia in Trouble'' (Raphus Press; 2021)
* ''Comfy Rascals'' (Raphus Press;2022)
* ''The Senile Pagodas'' (Centipede Press; 2022; {{ISBN|978-1-61347-080-0}})
* ''Adventures With Immortality'' (Oddness Books; 2023; {{ISBN|978-1-96021-328-0}})
* ''The Eleventh Commandment'' (Recital Publishing; 2025; {{ISBN|979-8-988670-23-0}})
* ''That Other Egypt'' (Eibonvale Press; 2025; {{ISBN|978-1-913766-36-8}})

=== Poetry ===

* ''The Gloomy Seahorse'' (Gloomy Seahorse Press; 2014; {{ISBN|978-1-291715-03-3}})
* ''Bunny Queue'' (ImpSpired Press; 2021; {{ISBN|978-1-914130-32-8}})
* ''Robot Poems'' (Gibbon Moon Books; 2022; {{ISBN|978-1-739797-16-4}})

=== Ebooks ===

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

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://rhysaurus.blogspot.com/ The Spoons That Are My Ears!], Rhys Hughes's [weblog](/source/weblog)
* [http://futurefire.net/archive/ookami.co.uk/rhys_hughes_interviewed.html Rhys Hughes, the man who laughs at goldfish], interview by Steve Redwood
* [https://weirdfictionreview.com/2016/03/interview-rhys-hughes Interview at ''Weird Fiction Review'', 7 March 2016]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Rhys}}
Category:1966 births
Category:Living people
Category:British science fiction writers
Category:Welsh male essayists
Category:Welsh male novelists
Category:Welsh male short story writers
Category:Welsh fantasy writers
Category:Welsh horror writers
Category:Welsh science fiction writers
Category:Writers from Cardiff
Category:21st-century Welsh male writers
Category:21st-century Welsh novelists
Category:21st-century Welsh essayists
Category:21st-century Welsh short story writers
{{wales-bio-stub}}
{{sf-writer-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Rhys Hughes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhys_Hughes) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhys_Hughes?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.