WeHo Reads: Noir!

The City of West Hollywood celebrates National Literacy Month in September 2014 by launching a new, free literary-based community event “WeHo Reads: Noir” and a month of free Saturday programming for adults and children at West Hollywood Library and Park. The programming includes not only great literature, but also special screenings of noir classics.

I want to note that on Saturday, September 27, there will be a day of author panels beginning at 1:00 and running to 7:00 p.m. Here is the full schedule. I am delighted that I will be a panelist on “Noir in Color: Voices from Beyond the Pale” that starts at 3:30 and lasts until 4:15. Here is a description of panel: Color blind or color in mind? Noir, neo-Noir and not-so-Noir? Join us and look “beyond the pale” at characters of color in Noir and into the “pale of Noir” to examine the broad nature of how Noir is defined. The panel will feature:

◙ Gary Phillips (Moderator) is the editor and contributor to the bestselling anthology “Orange County Noir” and “Black Pulp.” His novel “Warlord of Willow Ridge” was about a career criminal hiding out in suburbia and “Big Water” is his graphic novel about a community’s fight against water privatization.

Gary Phillips (Moderator) 

◙ Gar Anthony Haywood is the Shamus and Anthony award-winning author of twelve crime novels and numerous short stories. He has written for both The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and for long-form television. His short fiction has been included in the “Best American Mystery Stories” anthologies and Booklist has called him “a writer who has always belonged in the upper echelon of American crime fiction.”

Gar Anthony Haywood 

◙ Nina Revoyr is the author of four novels, including “Southland,” which was a BookSense 76 pick and a Los Angeles Times “Best Book” of 2003; the “The Age of Dreaming,” which was a finalist for the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and “Wingshooters,” which won an Indie Booksellers’ Choice Award, was one of O: Oprah Magazine’s “Books to Watch For,” and was one of Booklist’s Books of the Year for 2011. Her new novel, “Lost Canyon,” will be published in 2015. Revoyr is also co-editor of the textbook “Literature for Life: A Thematic Introduction to Reading and Writing”. She has taught at Cornell, Antioch, Occidental, and Pitzer, and is executive vice president of a non-profit children’s service organization in Los Angeles.

Nina Revoyr

◙ Désirée Zamorano delights in the exploration of contemporary issues of injustice and inequity, via her mystery series featuring private investigator, Inez Leon, published by Lucky Bat Books. “Human Cargo” was Latinidad’s mystery pick of the year.

Désirée Zamorano

◙ Daniel A. Olivas is the author of seven books including the award-winning novel, “The Book of Want” (University of Arizona Press), and “Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews” (San Diego State University Press). He is the editor of “Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature” (Bilingual Press), and has been widely anthologized including in “Sudden Fiction Latino” (W. W. Norton), and “You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens” (Arte Público Press). Olivas has written for many publications including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, La Bloga, High Country News, and California Lawyer.

 

Daniel A. Olivas 

For more information about WeHo Reads: Noir, visit here.