Brian WILLEMS

Brian Willems teaches literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split, Croatia, and is director of its Studia Mediterranea centre. He is author of the novella Henry, Henry (Zero Books, 2017) and his poetry and prose have appeared in The Antioch Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Things Magazine, Prague Literary Review and elsewhere. He is the author of several academic books, most recently Anger and Change in Korean American Literature (2025) and Sham Ruins: A User's Guide (2022), and is co-editor, with Nicol Barria-Asenjo and Slavoj Žižek, of Global Manifestos for the 21st Century, with a foreword by Yanis Varoufakis (2023). He translates from Croatian into English, and received a grant from the European Prize for Literature for his translation of Luka Bekavac's Gallery of Fine Arts in Osijek: Studies, Ruins. He has been a guest lecturer in the UK, USA, the Middle East, and continental Europe.

A list of academic publications can be found here

The Surviving Cells is a novel forthcoming on October 14th, 2026, from Les Fugitives. Now available for pre-order.

The book will be launched in conversation with Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou at Burley Fisher Books in London on October 14th. Details and tickets available here.

Present-day Minneapolis. Doctor Ana Jovanovic, oncologist, goes against the advice of her hospital's tumour board and schedules her patient Jonathan for exploratory surgery.
When a tragic event sends the doctor’s life into a tailspin, she takes a sudden sabbatical.
Now sharply aware of her own mortality, the doctor is confronted with decisions about quality of life and quality of death.

In conversation with Arielle Burgdorf about the novel at Worms Magazine.

An incredibly insightful review at Triumph of the Now by Scott Manley Hadley, who calls the novel ‘[A story] not only about the ultimate powerlessness of medicine in face of mortality, but a beautiful and deeply moving piece about the ways in which people see themselves and are seen by others … This is a serious novel about medical ethics, about the ways in which we live and the ways in which we die. It is emotionally potent, full of rich characterisation and beautiful descriptions of personhood and thought.’

A new and noteworthy book of the month at the London Review Bookshop.

A best debut of the month at the Daily Mail (where an excerpt of the first chapter is also available for subscribers).

An excerpt of the third chapter in 3am Magazine.

Kind endorsements from Dodie Bellamy, Maša Kolanović, Susan Finlay, Lori Inglis Hall, Sharon Kivland, and Rachel Cattle available at the Les Fugitives website, along with a collection of reviews.