Mississippi Noir

About the contributors

Megan Abbott is the Edgar Award — winning author of seven novels, including Dare Me, The End of Everything, and The Fever, winner of the ITW and Strand Critics Award for best novel and chosen one of the best books of 2014 by Amazon, NPR, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times. Her stories have also appeared in Queens Noir, Phoenix Noir, Wall Street Noir, and Detroit Noir. Her latest novel is You Will Know Me. Abbott served as a John Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi in 2013–14.

Ace Atkins is the New York Times best-selling author of nineteen novels, including The Redeemers and Robert B. Parker’s Kickback. He has been nominated for every major prize in crime fiction, including the Edgar Award three times, twice for novels about former U.S. Army ranger Quinn Colson. A former newspaper reporter and SEC football player, Atkins also writes essays and investigative pieces for several national magazines including Outside and Garden & Gun. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his family.

William Boyle is the author of the novel Gravesend and the story collection Death Don’t Have No Mercy. He is from Brooklyn, New York, and currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Robert Busby was born and raised in north Mississippi. He has worked as a band saw operator, a produce clerk, a bookseller, a driving school instructor, and a satellite television technician. His stories have appeared in Arkansas Review, Cold Mountain Review, PANK, Real South, and Surreal South ’11. Currently he lives, writes, teaches, and eats much barbecue in Memphis, Tennessee, with his wife and their two sons.

Jimmy Cajoleas grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He earned his MFA from the University of Mississippi, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Dominiqua Dickey, a former stage manager, paralegal, and deputy court clerk, was born in Chicago, raised in Grenada, Mississippi, and became an adult in Los Angeles. Her Southern upbringing and West Coast affinity are reflected in her work, as well as her love of history and its effect on common folk. She is pursuing a MFA at the University of Mississippi while applying the finishing touches to a short story collection and mystery novel.

Lee Durkee drives a cab in Oxford, Mississippi. He is the author of the novel Rides of the Midway (WW Norton), and has published short stories in such places as Harper’s Magazine, Tin House, Zoetrope: All-Story, and the New England Review.

John M. Floyd’s work has appeared in more than two hundred different publications, including the Strand Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, and the Best American Mystery Stories 2015. A former air force captain and IBM systems engineer, he won a Derringer Award in 2007 and was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2015. Floyd is the author of five books: Rainbow’s End, Midnight, Clockwork, Deception, and Fifty Mysteries.

Tom Franklin is the author of Poachers: Stories and three novels, Hell at the Breech, Smonk, and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for mystery/thriller, the Willie Morris Prize in Southern Fiction, and the UK’s Gold Dagger Award for Best Novel. His latest novel, The Tilted World, was cowritten with his wife, Beth Ann Fennelly. They live in Oxford, where they teach in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.

Michael Kardos is the Pushcart Prize — winning author of the novels Before He Finds Her and The Three-Day Affair, an Esquire best book of the year, as well as the story collection One Last Good Time, which won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for fiction. He grew up on the Jersey Shore and currently lives in Starkville, Mississippi, where he codirects the creative writing program at Mississippi State University.

Mary Miller is the author of two books, Big World, a short story collection, and The Last Days of California, a novel. Her second story collection, Always Happy Hour, is forthcoming from Liveright/Norton. A former James A. Michener Fellow in fiction at the University of Texas, she most recently served as the John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at Ole Miss.

Chris Offutt grew up in Haldeman, Kentucky, a former mining town of two hundred people in the Appalachian foothills. He is the author of two memoirs, The Same River Twice and No Heroes; two collections of short stories, Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods; and one novel, The Good Brother. His latest book is My Father, The Pornographer. He lives on fourteen acres in Lafayette County, Mississippi.

Jamie Paige was born in Meridian, Mississippi. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Mississippi and currently studies at the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Andrew Paul grew up outside Jackson, Mississippi. Some of his more recent work is featured or forthcoming with Virginia Quarterly Review, Oxford American, VICE, Tablet, and The Bitter Southerner. He currently lives in New Orleans.

Jack Pendarvis is the author of five books. He is currently a writer for the Peabody Award — winning television show Adventure Time.

Michael Farris Smith is the author of Rivers, The Hands of Strangers, and Desperation Road. Rivers was named to “best of the year” lists by Book Riot, Esquire, Hudson Booksellers, and numerous other regional and national outlets. He is the recipient of the Mississippi Author Award for fiction, the Transatlantic Review Award for fiction, and the Brick Streets Press Short Story Award. He lives in Columbus, Mississippi, with his wife and daughters.

RaShell R. Smith-Spears grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She is an associate professor of English at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. Smith-Spears earned a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA from the University of Memphis. She has published creative works in Short Story, Black Magnolias, and A Lime Jewel. She recently completed her first novel.