The Noirwich Crime Writing Festival announced that Anita Terpstra and Paddy Richardson will be its Unesco City of Literature virtual writers in residence for 2020. Terpstra, who is from Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, will join Richardson, from Dunedin, New Zealand, to create new work and "foster connections" between Norwich and their home cities. This year's festival will take place as an online event from September 10-13 and include a program of live Q&As, creative writing workshops and discussion panels. Authors such as Attica Locke, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Olivier Norek, Sophie Hannah, and Jill Dawson will be feature in discussions that will be free to view.
The Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival is hosting an interview with Lee Child ahead of the publication of his biography, The Reacher Guy: The Authorised Biography of Lee Child, by Dr. Heather Martin. Titled "Reacher, Prospero and Me," the interview will include Child describing the influence Shakespeare has had on his work, and "revelations about a life-changing trip to Stratford." He will also talk about the creation of his main protagonist, Jack Reacher, via the broadcast on Eventbrite's digital platform, September 28.
The new issue of Mystery Scene Magazine is out, with a cover profile of Camilla Läckberg by Oline H. Cogdill; an article on "Raymond Chandler and the Brasher Doubloon" by Lawrence Block; a look at "Love on the Run: Criminal Couples" by Pat H. Broeske, and much more.
There is a call for submissions for "The Crossroads of Crime Writing: Historical, Sociological, and Cultural Contexts/Intersections/Perspectives." The editors are seeking essays that "provide new insights into the works of significant authors, series or sub-genres of crime literature that we once thought we knew and/or examine the intersections of the real and fictional within the broader genre of Crime Writing in meaningful ways. Contributors are encouraged to dissect the historical, cultural, and/ or sociological significance of crime fiction, as well as examine how such works influence true crime writing or vice versa." You can find some sample essay topics on the Law Lit blog announcement. Interested authors should send 500-word abstracts along with a 200-word biographical statement to Meghan Nolan ([email protected]) and Rebecca Martin ([email protected]) by November 1st, 2020. The deadline for selected essays of 5000-7000 words is April 2021.
Kings River Life had a profile of the new owners of Mysterious Galaxy, an independent bookstore specializing in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, young adult, romance, and horror. Founded in 1992, the store has been an integral part of San Diego’s literary scene for readers ever since. After nearly 30 years in business, the original owners decided it was time to sell, which is where Matthew Berger and Jenni Marchisotto came in. A young couple who had lived down the street from the store, they had called it "their happy place," and along with Matthew being a fan of fantasy and sci-fi, it all converged to make Mysterious Galaxy a perfect fit.
Frustrated at not being able to travel or take that vacation this summer? CrimeReads recently featured some trips to crime fiction regions that might help tide you over, including a review of the new Akashic Books anthology, Tampa Bay Noir; a look at Lawrence Osborne's "Uncanny Bangkok"; a profile of the crime fiction of New Zealand; a list of "10 California Crime Novels That Aren't Set in Los Angeles or San Francisco"; and a roundtable discussion titled "The Women of Canadian Crime Fiction."
You may think of Ray Bradbury as a master of science fiction, but as the Bookgasm blog notes, a new anthology from Hard Case Crime titled Killer, Come Back to Me includes 20 stories that demonstrate the imagination and creativity Bradbury brought to crime fiction.
Did you know there are subscription coffee services? One in particular, My Coffee and Book Club, allows you to choose from your favorite literary genre including mysteries and thrillers and send along a book and java every month.
The latest crime poem at the 5-2 Weekly is "Dexterity" by Clark Zlotchew.
In the Q&A roundup, Denise Mina chatted with Shots Magazine's Ayo Onatade about her recent books Conviction and The Last Drop and how they're different from her other books; Aretha Phiri interviewed Rhodes University professor, Sam Naidu, about his essay focusing on African crime and detective fiction as a complex and disruptive variety of classic crime; and Julie Mulhern was featured at the Writers Who Kill blog talking about Killer Queen, the eleventh book in her humorous Country Club Murder mystery series, which is set in the 1970s.
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