While the second print issue of Gigantic, a magazine of short prose and art, is only days away from its anticipated release, Gigantic has just published new and noteworthy work online.
There’s short fiction and poetry by Saša Stanišić (click here to read the recent Rumpus interview with Stanišić), including “Let’s Go Sleep Japan Soon,” about a couple who “have a soft spot for sleeping where famous people once slept.” Like fellow Bosnian-born writer Aleksandar Hemon, Stanišić emigrated from Bosnia during the Yugoslav Wars. And though Eastern European, his writing feels inspired more by Barthelme and Beckett than by Dostoevsky. Stanišić, who now lives in Berlin, Germany published his debut novel, How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone (Grove/Atlantic May 2009)–about a boy who endures the war in Bosnia through the solace of language and stories–to great acclaim. The novel has been translated in over 30 languages and was the first debut novel to be short-listed for Germany’s top literary prize when it was published there. He is currently Writer-in-Residence at MIT.
Also in Gigantic online is short fiction by Brian Hurley, and new installments of Paul Willerton’s Little Big Planet series based on Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, including an exclusive preview of his latest interpretation of Cremaster 3 replete with freemasons, car smash-ups, and the Chrysler building.
