Books & Books and Miami Book Fair present…

An Evening with Les Standiford, Preston L. Allen, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Vicki Hendricks, John Dufresne, David Beaty, T.J. MacGregor, and Lynne Barrett

Please note this is a free event! However, if you would like to make a contribution to support Books & Books' virtual events, we are grateful for any and all donations. Donations can be made in the upper righthand corner, above the "Save My Spot!" registration button. Thank you!

This long-awaited sequel to 2006's best-selling Miami Noir offers classic noir from Elmore Leonard, Zora Neale Hurston, Damon Runyon, Lester Dent, and many more.

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

The best-selling original Miami Noir, edited by Les Standiford and published in 2006, featured brand-new stories from some of the city's best living writers. Now, in Miami Noir: The Classics, Standiford has turned his eye toward the outstanding noir fiction of yesteryear.

Featuring classic noir fiction from: Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 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, Les Standiford, Preston L. Allen, John Dufresne, Vicki Hendricks, Christine Kling, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, and David Beaty.

Les Standiford, who edited 2006’s Miami Noir,  is the author of twenty-four books and novels, including the award-winning John Deal thriller series and the works of narrative nonfiction Last Train to Paradise, the One Read choice of a dozen public library systems, and Bringing Adam Home, a Wall Street Journal number one true crime best seller. He is director of the MFA program in creative writing at Florida International University in Miami.

Preston L. Allen is a recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, and has authored the novels All or Nothing, Jesus Boy, and the allegorical Every Boy Should Have a Man (a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award). The New York Times has called him “a cartographer of autodegradation,” placing his work on a continuum with that of Dostoevsky, William S. Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski. Allen is associate professor of English and creative writing at Miami Dade College.

Lynne Barrett has received the Edgar Award for best mystery story and, for her collection Magpies, the Florida Book Awards’ fiction gold medal. Some of her recent work has appeared in Mystery Tribune, the Hong Kong Review, Necessary Fiction, and Just to Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Johnny Cash. Jai-Alai Books has just released her anthology Making Good Time: True Stories of How We Do, and Don’t, Get Around in South Florida.

David Beaty was born in Brazil of American parents. A graduate of Columbia University, he earned an MFA in creative writing from Florida International University. He has lived in Greece, England, and Brazil, and currently resides in Miami. His story “Ghosts” was selected for Best American Mystery Stories 2000, and his story “The Last of Lord Jitters,” originally published in Miami Noir, received an honorable mention for Best American Mystery Stories 2007, edited by Carl Hiaasen.

John Dufresne has written two story collections and six novels, including Louisiana Power & Light and Love Warps the Mind a Little, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He has also written four books on writing, two plays (Liv & Di and Trailerville), and has cowritten two feature films. His stories have twice been selected for Best American Mystery Stories. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and teaches creative writing at Florida International University in Miami.

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera is the Cuba-born, Miami Beach–based, award-winning author of ten books, as well as a contributor to many anthologies. She is best known for her Lupe Solano mystery series. Her books have been translated into twelve languages. Garcia-Aguilera became a private investigator—a profession she has practiced for over thirty years—so she could credibly write the novels featuring Antonia Wright a PI as a protagonist.

Vicki Hendricks is the author of the noir novels Miami Purity, Iguana Love, Voluntary Madness, Sky Blues, and Cruel Poetry, which was an Edgar Award finalist in 2008. Her short stories are collected in Florida Gothic Stories. She currently lives in central Florida, the rural locale of her most recent novel, Fur People.

T.J. MacGregor (a.k.a. Trish MacGregor, Alison Drake, and several other names) is the author of forty-two novels and several dozen nonfiction books on synchronicity, astrology, tarot, and dreams. Her most recent novel is Skin Shifters, and she won the Edgar Award in 2003 for her novel Out of Sight.

A Virtual Evening with Miami Noir: The Classics