Oakland Noir

Synopsis

Brand-new stories by: Nick Petrulakis, Kim Addonizio, Keenan Norris, Keri Miki-Lani Schroeder, Katie Gilmartin, Dorothy Lazard, Harry Louis Williams II, Carolyn Alexander, Phil Canalin, Judy Juanita, Jamie DeWolf, Nayomi Munaweera, Mahmud Rahman, Tom McElravey, Joe Loya, and Eddie Muller. In the wake of San Francisco Noir, Los Angeles Noir, and Orange County Noirall popular volumes in the Akashic Noir Seriescomes the latest California installment, Oakland Noir. Masterfully curated by Jerry Thompson and Eddie Muller, the Czar of Noir, this volume will shock, titillate, provoke, and entertain. The diverse cast of talented contributors will not disappoint. From the introduction: Jerry Thompson: Discovering the wang-dang-doodle jams of the Pointer Sisters shifted my entire focus. Stunning black women were scatting and bebopping all the way into my soul. I think what weve put together in Oakland Noir is a volume where this city is a character in every story. Hes a slick brother strutting over a bacon-grease bass line and tambourine duet. Shes a white chick with a bucket of hot muffins heading to farmer and flea markets, to sell crafts and get hooked up with some fine kat with dreadlocks and a criminal record. And its in the faces of young fearless muthafuckers pounding keyboards and snapping fingers, lips, Snapchats, and Facebook timelines. Its the core of not only Black Lives Matter but all lives matter. We are the children of fantasy and of the funk. Eddie Muller: These days, writers and readers arent denying the darker parts of our existence as much as they used to, especially in crime fiction. Some writers just do it for fun because its become the fashionable way to get published. You know, gritty violence and all that bullshit. The genuine darkness in noir stories comes from two placesthe cruelty of the worlds innate indifference and the cruelty that people foster within themselves. If youre not seriously dealing with one, the other, or both, then youre not really writing noir.