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Susan Straight's story in Los Angeles Noir, "The Golden Gopher," has won a 2008 Edgar Award in the Best Short Story category! The Edgar Awards were presented at the 62nd Gala Banquet, May 1, 2008 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City. Congrats, Susan!

Be sure to check out Write to the City: The First Writers' Slam on Gentrification in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 29 at Gallery g727 (727 S. Spring St.) in Los Angeles from 8-11pm. From their website: "Can you imagine Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe hanging out at a gastro-pub? Or Dashiell Hammett writing the Maltese Falcon from a luxury loft? Today, noir and mystery writers are documenting a common phenomenon. Their characters' lives are all facing a big problem: they're grappling with the changing face of their cities. The vibrant city celebrated in noir books and stories is fast disappearing. Its residents and local businesses are facing the same fate as those in the non-fiction world. Gentrification is forcing them out of their communities. Write to the City is a one-of-a-kind slam that will pair some of the country's foremost noir and mystery writers with inner-city activists to trade stories in a genre-melding way. We hope you'll join us on May 29th for a literary and political exploration of the city, and a chance to talk to someone you don't know over a whiskey sour and a background of good music." Among the participants in this Akashic-cosponsored event include Nina Revoyr, Denise Hamilton, and Gary Phillips, and Jervey Tervalon.

High Life, Matthew Stokoe's classic noir masterpiece, is finally back in print! This revised edition, presented here with a brand-new introduction from Dennis Cooper, has been described by Ken Bruen as "the greatest neglected masterpiece of true noir." The book is available exclusively through Akashic's website until it hits bookstores this summer. Order your copy today!

Four stories from the Akashic Noir Series have been selected for inclusion in the prestigious Best American Mystery Stories 2008 anthology: "At the Top of His Game" by Stephen Rhodes (Wall Street Noir), "Hothouse" by S.J. Rozan (Bronx Noir), "Mulholland Drive" by Michael Connelly (Los Angeles Noir), and "The Hour When the Ship Comes In" by Robert Ferrigno (Los Angeles Noir). This year, George Pelecanos will serve as the editor of the volume.

Additionally, two other stories from Wall Street Noir, "The Enlightenment of Magnus McKay" by John Burdett and "A Trader's Lot" by Twist Phelan, have been selected as finalists in the Best Short Story for the 2008 Derringer Awards. The Short Mystery Fiction Society will announce the winners on May 15, 2008.

The Duppy, by Jamaican comic master Anthony C. Winkler, was recently featured on the Today show (NBC) as part of its new "Cover to Cover" segment. Follow this link to watch an excerpt from the program. Just how funny is this social satire? Akashic Books' pledge to our readers: Laugh out loud at least once or your money back. Seriously. According to the New Yorker, "Winkler has a fine ear for patois and dialogue, and a love of language that makes bawdy jokes crackle."

Now available: dark tales of sex, addiction, and violence from the New York to Vegas and back! South by South Bronx, the latest novel from American Book Award winner Abraham Rodriguez, exposes the seedy underside of the borough with haunting prose that has left the New York tabloids wanting more. And check out the latest entries in Akashic's acclaimed Noir Series: Brooklyn Noir 3 edited by Tim McLoughlin--the first true crime entry in the series; Las Vegas Noir, edited by Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce; and Toronto Noir, edited by Janine Armin & Nathaniel G. Moore.

And Nina Revoyr's latest novel, The Age of Dreaming, has been receiving enormous critical acclaim: Publishers Weekly calls The Age of Dreaming "an enormously satisfying novel," while Library Journal says it's "fast-moving, riveting, unpredictable, and profound; highly recommended." Check out this great interview with Nina from The Elegant Variation and this recent profile on her from the Los Angeles Times.

An exhibition of Pat Graham's photographs is now ongoing at the Needles & Pins Gallery in San Francisco. This retrospective features Graham's iconic prints of the likes of Fugazi, Bikini Kill, and Modest Mouse, taken from his new book, Silent Pictures. Click here for more information. And check out this great interview with Pat, replete with many of his photographs.

Signed books available from Akashic! A limited number of autographed copies of several of our new books are available directly from Akashic. Go to the individual book's web page to order via PayPal: The Swing Voter of Staten Island (signed by Arthur Nersesian), Tales of the Out & the Gone (signed by Amiri Baraka), American Visa (signed by Juan de Recacoechea), Bronx Noir (signed by editor S.J. Rozan), and four autographed books from Joe Meno--Tender As Hellfire, The Boy Detective Fails, Hairstyles of the Damned, and How the Hula Girl Sings--are all available while supplies last!

Help Tom Hayden End the War in Iraq! Bulk discount rates are available for antiwar organizations and activists: Orders of 20 copies or more receive a discounted rate of only $9.00 each, and serve as the ideal fundraising and organizing tool for political and community groups. Please contact johanna [at] akashicbooks [dot] com for more information or to place an order.

Check out Akashic on MySpace! Please visit our new corner of cyberspace.

The Glenlivet Salutes Akashic Publisher Johnny Temple! Take a look at this full-page profile of Johnny in the winter fiction issue of The New Yorker. And the International Herald Tribune also recently profiled Akashic's ubiquitous publisher.

Click here for ordering information on first edition, out of print, autographed novels, plays, and poems by Arthur Nersesian, (author of The Fuck-Up, Manhattan Loverboy, dogrun, Chinese Takeout, Unlubricated, East Village Tetralogy, and Suicide Casanova.)