Three writers featured in a new crime anthology, Bronx Noir (Akashic Books, 2007), launched the Fordham University Department of English’s Writing Wednesdays lecture series on Sept. 19 by reading from and discussing their work.
The anthology features 19 stories, all of which take place in what is one of the most racially and economically diverse corners of the country.
“Our goal was to give readers the sense that if they are beamed down magically to anywhere in the [Bronx], they’d be able to say from having read the book that they’d been there before,” said editor and writer S.J. Rozan, whose story “Hothouse” takes place inside the conservatory at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. “All of the stories succeed in doing that.”
Other authors in attendance included Joanne Dobson, Ph.D., former associate professor of English at Fordham, and writer Tom Adcock. Akashic Books has published 15 of the mystery books that have featured locales from Baltimore to Wall Street.
Writing Wednesdays, which started last year, is a series of informal gatherings for Fordham’s creative writing community. Its second lecture, “Publishing Your First Book,” took place on Oct. 17 on the Lincoln Center campus.
