Akashic's Noir Series Comes To Portland

I have been excited about the release of Portland’s addition to the Akashic noir series since stumbling upon Bill Cameron mentioning it on his website a couple months ago.  Whose contribution, by the way, is Alison Hallett’s favorite in the collection so far.

Portland Noir (Akashic Books 2009) features brand-new stories from some of Portland’s finest lit talent: Gigi Little, Justin Hocking, Chris A. Bolton, Jess Walter, Monica Drake, Jamie S. Rich (illustrated by Joelle Jones), Dan DeWeese, Zoe Trope, Luciana Lopez, Karen Karbo, Bill Cameron, Ariel Gore, Floyd Skloot, Megan Kruse, Kimberly Warner-Cohen, and Jonathan Selwood.  Add in the fact that it’s edited by Kevin Sampsell, Portland’s literary linchpin, and it may just jump to the top of the Portland 101 list of required reading.

You can get it for 30% off right now at Powell’s, as it’s one of their “New Favorites.”  I will offer a complete review once I get through reading it, but for now here are the Publishers Comments to get you started:

Explore the dark, rainy underbelly of one of America’s most beautiful but enigmatic cities.

From the downtown streets littered with strip clubs and gutter punks to the north side where gentrification and old school hip-hop collide, Portland, Oregon, is a place that seems straight out of a David Lynch movie. It’s a city full of police controversies, hippie artist houses, and overzealous liberals, where even its fiction blurs with its bizarre realities.

Portland Noir is an encompassing literary journey where your tour guides take you to the Shanghai Tunnels, dog parks, dive bars, sex shops, Powell’s Books, Voodoo Doughnuts, suspiciously quiet neighborhoods, the pseudo-glitzy Pearl District, Oaks Amusement Park, and a strip club shaped like a jug. Violent crime, petty mischief, and personal tragedy run through these mysterious tales that careen through this cloudy, wet city.

Portland Noir is sure to both charm and frighten readers familiar with this northwest hub and intrigue those who have never traveled to this proudly weird city.