Brian Howell is an author and teacher living and working near Tokyo, Japan. He has published three novels, one short story collection, and over thirty short stories. His novels focus on Dutch seventeenth-century painters with an interest in optical devices. His stories have elements of the weird, fantasy, and magical realism. His most recent novel, Sight Unseen, was recently published by Zagava, Germany, and his two previous novels about the painters Vermeer and Torrentius – The Dance of Geometry and The Curious Case of Torrentius – will be republished by Zagava in paperback. He writes poems occasionally, cycles, and listens to many podcasts.