In Conversation: On a Life of Crime (Writing)

Johnny Temple is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Akashic Books, an award-winning Brooklyn, New York-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction. Temple is a recipient of the 2013 Ellery Queen Award; the American Association of Publishers 2005 Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing; and the 2010 Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence in Noir Literature.

Achy Obejas is the author of various books, including the novel Days of Awe and the best-selling poetry chapbook This Is What Happened in Our Other Life. She is the editor of Akashic’s crime-fiction anthology Havana Noir, the author of Ruins, and the translator (into Spanish) for Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Sterling Watson is the author of eight novels, including Deadly Sweet, Sweet Dream Baby, Fighting in the Shade, and Suitcase City. Watson’s short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Prairie Schooner, the Georgia Review, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, the Michigan Quarterly Review, and the Southern Review. Gainesville, Florida, in the late 1950s, seems to be a sleepy university town. Its residents appear to live ordinary lives. And yet the town is far from ordinary. The most private acts of professors, students, townspeople rich and poor, and politicians are under the close scrutiny of a shadowy group of men –the Committee– who use the powers of government and the police to investigate, threaten, and control this increasingly fearful community. Based on actual historical events and set against the backdrop of political, cultural, and class turmoil, Sterling Watson’s The Committee (Akashic Books) is a story of love, war, friendship, betrayal, and finally the need to stand firm against the encroachments upon freedom by men who believe they are doing God’s and the government’s work. The Tampa Bay Times praised Watson for a “sharply crafted novel. [He] re-creates the era with rich detail and a creeping sense of dread. The Committee is the kind of story that makes you hope it can’t happen here–but reminds you that it already has.”

Les Standiford is the author of twenty-four books and novels, including the award-winning John Deal thriller series. His nonfiction publications include Last Train to Paradise, and Bringing Adam Home, a Wall Street Journal number one true crime best seller. He has previously edited the best-selling original 2006’s Miami Noir which featured brand-new stories from some of the city’s best living writers In Miami Noir: The Classics (Akashic Noir) Standiford turned his eye toward the outstanding noir fiction of yesteryear. The nineteen stories in this collection are divided in four parts: “Original Gangsters” (which includes the oldest story in the book, “Pineland” by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, written in 1925), “Perilous Streets, Lethal Causeways,” Miami’s Vices,” and “Gators & Ghouls.” In his introduction, Standiford notes that “When terrible things threaten in some ominous neighborhoods, in some tough cities, a reader of a story set in those locales might be forgiven for expecting the worst; but when calamity takes place against the backdrop of paradise, as we have here in Miami, the impact is all the greater.” Besides contributions by Stoneman Douglas and Standiford, the volume include stories by Elmore Leonard, Lester Dent, Zora Neale Hurston, Brett Halliday, Damon Runyon, Edna Buchanan, James Carlos Blake, Douglas Fairbairn, Charles Willeford, T.J. MacGregor, Lynne Barrett, Preston L. Allen, John Dufresne, Vicki Hendricks, Christine Kling, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, and David Beaty. Kirkus Review praised it as “A collection that shows how far a city can come and still maintain a strong noir tradition.”

Nelson George is an author and filmmaker. His books include the first four novels in his D Hunter mystery series: The Accidental Hunter, The Plot Against Hip Hop, The Lost Treasures of R&B, and To Funk and Die in LA. Among his many nonfiction works are The Death of Rhythm & Blues, Hip Hop America, and The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture & Style. Former bodyguard D Hunter has moved to Los Angeles to become a talent manager. Business is good: he has signed a hot Atlanta rapper named Lil Daye and negotiated a lucrative endorsement with a liquor brand. But then D learns of the liquor CEO’s unsavory sexual habits and reactionary political views and worries that he has sold his soul. Back in Brooklyn, a body has been found and it connects D and the retired hit man Ice. The FBI wants to speak to D, which is making Ice nervous. Meanwhile in London, Serene Powers, a vigilante and sometime collaborator with D, breaks up a human trafficking ring. When she returns to the US, D asks her for assistance with a sensitive matter involving Lil Daye, his wife, his mistress, and a thug on his payroll. Nelson George ‘s The Darkest Hearts (Akashic Books) reflects the challenges of being a black businessperson in an era when the rules of entrepreneurship are constantly shifting beneath an increasingly polarized political environment. Filmmaker Spike Lee praised George: “I’ve known Nelson over thirty years