Weird fiction from "weird" places?

[ether]

After reading a thread on here concerning weird fiction originating in Africa, I realized that, as far as my horror reading goes, it's essentially limited to authors mostly from a narrow selection of English-speaking countries. I would be interested in hearing from the connoisseurs here on whether or not there are authors of note from places like ex-Yugoslavia, China, or other locales that are commonly overlooked in literature. Is there a wealth of forgotten gems out there that western readers are passing over? Or did horror and weird fiction just not catch on in other parts of the world?

The Blind Owl by Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat is widely considered the greatest Persian novel of the 20th century, and it's extremely weird and disturbing. It rivals Poe's best works in originality and quality.

I would theorise that every country has its weird fiction. Much like the OP, I'm guilty of having an Anglosphere-centric view of the genre. It would be in our interests to find hidden gems elsewhere. Not for any bull#### political correctness reasons, but because we're almost definitely missing out on some masterpieces and geniuses.

[Gnosticangel]

While not as afar afield as Persian writer Sadegh Hedayat, I have great appreciation for the work of Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga (31 December 1878 – 19 February 1937) whose writing has been favorably compared to Edgar Allan Poe.

For once, Wikipedia says it quite well: "He wrote stories which, in their jungle settings, use the supernatural and the bizarre to show the struggle of man and animal to survive. He also excelled in portraying mental illness and hallucinatory states."

By all accounts the jungle was a tremendous influence on Quiroga's perceptions and writing. He also had a particularly tragic life, marked by sudden accidental family deaths including his father being shot shortly after he was born; family suicides including that of his stepfather and his own wife; accidentally shooting his best friend; and finally his own suicide by poison. Guilt and depression are said to be enormous factors in his haunted writing.

One of his most famous short stories, "The Feather Pillow," is linked here:

The Feather Pillow

Quote Originally Posted by Prince James Zaleski

I would theorise that every country has its weird fiction. Much like the OP, I'm guilty of having an Anglosphere-centric view of the genre. It would be in our interests to find hidden gems elsewhere. Not for any bull#### political correctness reasons, but because we're almost definitely missing out on some masterpieces and geniuses.

Satan bless folks like Jeff VanderMeer and Michael Cisco for bringing otherwise unknown pieces of weirdness to light.

[ether]

Quote Originally Posted by Prince James Zaleski

I would theorise that every country has its weird fiction. Much like the OP, I'm guilty of having an Anglosphere-centric view of the genre. It would be in our interests to find hidden gems elsewhere. Not for any bull#### political correctness reasons, but because we're almost definitely missing out on some masterpieces and geniuses.

Ha, no pc diversity quotas intended!

Very interesting recommendations so far. I suspect that we could be missing out on a lot of worthwhile writers due to lack of translations as well. Not exactly horror, but I am reminded of Yukio Mishima's odd sci-fi novel that hasn't been translated due to lack of commercial potential.

Quote Originally Posted by Nirvana In Karma

Jeff VanderMeer

I should really buy that The Weird anthology.

The ebook is pretty cheap, so I'm grabbing it now. I'll try to miss smoking for the rest of the week to compensate my low amount of petty cash.

[Gnosticangel]

RE. "I should really buy that The Weird anthology."

The anthology is well worth having. For me, it repaid the investment twice over simply for containing the two Jean Ray stories, "The Mainz Psalter," and "The Shadowy Street" (since I failed to purchase the Ex Occidente Jean Ray when it was published).

But the work also contains selected tales from many other Weird Greats - Leonora Carrington, Jorge Luis Borges, Bruno Schulz, Hagiwara Sakutaro, Julio Cortazar, Mervyn Peake, Michel Bernanos, Reza Negarestani, Eric Basso, Alfred Kubin, etc. etc.

I hadn't thought of it until reading the last two postings, but this one book could easily satisfy the query raised in the original post by Ether. I know it's been said before, but here is a wonderful resource for the connoisseurs of the global Weird.