NoirCon 2008 in Philadelphia this week
It began last year as GoodisCon, honoring Philadelphia's own David Goodis, whose work included the novels made into the movies Dark Passage and Shoot the Piano Player. This year's version is called NoirCon, and it honors the kind of writing Goodis exemplified.
The event runs from April 3-6, and it includes discussions, movies, meals, a silent auction and more. Tributes to Georges Simenon, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jim Thompson, Donald Goines, Charles Willeford and Carroll John Daly are on the agenda, though these are scheduled as early as 8:45 a.m., a highly un-noirlike hour to expect attendees to be out of bed. Guest of honor among a star-studded list of attendees, and a man I'll hope to meet, is Ken Bruen.
More information here.
© Peter Rozovsky 2008
The event runs from April 3-6, and it includes discussions, movies, meals, a silent auction and more. Tributes to Georges Simenon, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jim Thompson, Donald Goines, Charles Willeford and Carroll John Daly are on the agenda, though these are scheduled as early as 8:45 a.m., a highly un-noirlike hour to expect attendees to be out of bed. Guest of honor among a star-studded list of attendees, and a man I'll hope to meet, is Ken Bruen.
More information here.
© Peter Rozovsky 2008
Labels: conventions, NoirCon, NoirCon 2008
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 5:34 PM
5 Comments:
Just a thought that came to me as I read this. I haven't read as widely in Noir as in other subgenres, but I have read and enjoyed some of the best of it, and it has crossed my mind more than once that one name is conspicuous by its absence in every discussion of Noir I come across: John Franklin Bardin. His first three novels, The Deadly Percheron, Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly, and The Last of Philip Banter, were groundbreaking in the psychological mode of crime fiction and masterly. I read them about thirty years ago after reading a tribute to him by Julian Symons, and I don't think I've seen his name mentioned in a review, a blog, or an article since.
Sounds like something you will really enjoy Peter. Will you get to attend much of it?
Philip, I also haven't read widely in noir, but the convention is in the city where I live, so why not attend? I didn't know John Franklin Bardin's name, but I'll look him up and maybe ask other attendees about him. Last year's sessions included a book sale, I think, so I might even find a volume of his. Thanks.
Kerrie, I'm taking a few days off work, so I'll get to attend as many of the sessions as I can get myself out of bed for. (The conference will mean a sudden and radical switch from a night to a day schedule for me.) One of the attractions will be a chance to meet a number of people with whom I've been in touch with via blogs.
I'm currently reading his 'Nightfall', and I just noticed he was born in Philly
(two films based on novels of his which I haven't yet seen are 'Dark Passage', and 'The Moon in the Gutter', which are included in this anthology of his I have, along with 'Down There')
Oh, yeah, he was a Philly boy, all right. In fact NoirCon 2008 grew out of an event called Goodis Con that had been held the year before.
I have read little Goodis, but I did attend a memorial service at his grave site last year.
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