Welcome to the website for Brian Panhuyzen, Canadian author of short stories and novels and freelance FileMaker database developer (visit the Neutrino Data Systems website for more info).
The blog posts here tend towards left-leaning politics (i.e., anti-selfishness, pro-democracy, anti-corruption, pro-people, with strong support for compassion and collective support systems that favour human quality-of-life over the wealth of a few individuals and corporations), anti-superstition (astrology, black magic, religion), pro-creativity (support for artists), pro-environment, and pro-bike. I’ve come to all these positions through careful thought and consideration, not because of emotional attachment to ideas (can you justify with logical arguments why you believe what you believe?) or because of indoctrination by parents or other authority figures.
My next novel, A Tidy Armageddon, will be published in spring 2023 by ECW Press.
I have published a short story collection, The Death of the Moon (Cormorant Books), plus I have a novel The Sky Manifest with ECW Press.
The Death of the Moon is as catastrophic and beautiful as it sounds. Torontonian Brian Panhuyzen’s first collection of short stories proves him to be versatile, thoughtful and imaginative, with an original voice and an evocative use of metaphor. . . . For Panhuyzen, the beauty is in the details. He establishes scene, time and character easily, rapidly and convincingly. His attention to evocative and original metaphor, complex symbolism, story selection and pacing make The Death of the Moon both entertaining and thought-provoking. This is a collection to be revisited.
~ The Toronto Star
Toronto writer Brian Panhuyzen’s first collection of short stories, The Death of the Moon is an auspicious debut from a young man with talent to burn. Panhuyzen has mastered the economy of expression essential to spinning a full-blown tale in relatively few words.
~ January Magazine, best of the year
There are some love stories in here that will have award-winning writers looking nervously toward their laurels. Such haunting masterpieces as “Marshmallows and Jawbreakers” or “Marijke and Shonny” are tales of two different kinds of sexual relationships that you will want to linger over rather than stuff your face with. And Panhuyzen really gives good sex. Messy, complicated, tender, realistic love scenes . . . We can be certain that the jacket of his next book will be covered with acclaim for this one.
~ National Post