I am pleased to announce that Akashic Publishing will release its latest book of noir short stories on May 7^th.  As some of you know, one of my short stories was accepted and included in this new book, titled Houston Noir. Fellow authors who contributed brand new stories for this book include Tom Abrahams, Robert Boswell, Sarah Cortez, Anton DiSclafani, Stephanie Jaye Evans, Wanjiku Wa Ngugi, Adrienne Perry, Pia Pico, Reyes Ramirez, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Sehba Sarwar, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Larry Watts, and Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton.

Houston’s own first Poet Laureate and author, Gwendolyn Zepeda guided the project to completion and deserves much credit for what I’m sure will be its great success. You can learn more about Gwendolyn by following this link. http://gwendolynzepeda.com/about/

Here are a few of the reviews written about Houston Noir.

“Houston Noir has arrived, an ode to the grime, grit and glamour of Texas’s largest, most fascinating (and, to be fair, probably ugliest) city. Houston is unique in Texas history in that it’s a large, multicultural port city that has never had zoning laws. While that can mean oil refineries located right next to schools, it can also mean–and does mean–one of the least segregated cities in the United States, which, combined with urban sprawl, means every kind of story, in every kind of combination, is up for grabs as a Houston story. We can’t wait to see all the different visions of this complex town!”
—CrimeReads

“Zepeda’s introduction notes her hometown’s unique features, including the absence of any zoning laws, making Houston ‘culturally diverse, internally incongruous, and ever-changing’…Noir aficionados will be pleased.”
—Publishers Weekly

“There’s precious little comfort to be found in any of these Houston neighborhoods, most of which are set light-years away from the city’s notoriously cushy new-money culture…Houston comes across as a haven of multiculturalism–though, as in all the 90-plus volumes of Akashic’s 15-year-old series, the vision of the city that emerges isn’t likely to jump-start tourism for any but the most ghoulishly inclined.”
—Kirkus Reviews

I invite everyone to pre-order your copy at any of the traditional book sellers. Once you’ve read this collection of short stories, I’m sure you’ll be buying other Akashic books of noir short stories, set in cities around the world.

Akashic Books award-winning series of original noir anthologies, was launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.