Palm Springs Noir

About the Contributors

Chris J. Bahnsen is known as a “zebra” by his Chicano uncles, in that he is half Mexican and half white, and thus walks the strange and sometimes precarious edge between cultures. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Smithsonian’s Air & Space, Hobart, River Teeth, and Hippocampus. He is an assistant editor with Narrative magazine, living biresidentially in Southern California and Northwest Ohio.

Eric Beetner has been called “the twenty-first century’s answer to Jim Thompson.” He has written more than twenty novels, including All the Way Down, Rumrunners, and The Devil Doesn’t Want Me. When not spending the weekend vacationing in Palm Springs with his family, he cohosts the podcast Writer Types and the Noir at the Bar reading series. For more information, visit ericbeetner.com.

Rob Bowman moved to the desert several years ago from Denver, his longtime home and setting for his upcoming detective novel. His fiction has appeared in the Coachella Review and the Donnybrook Writing Academy. Additional credits include Modern in Denver, Book and Film Globe, and others. He cohosts the film and pop culture podcast Reel Disagreement. When not immersed in these things, he is with his wife Mindy and their sons, Jetson and Rocket.

Michael Craft is the author of seventeen novels, four of which have been honored as finalists for Lambda Literary Awards. His 2019 mystery, ChoirMaster, won a Gold IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award. In 2017, Craft’s professional papers were acquired by the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of California, Riverside. He holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and lives in Rancho Mirage, California, near Palm Springs.

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett spends time in the desert whenever she can. She hosts Writers on Writing on KUCI-FM, and her book Pen on Fire was a Los Angeles Times best seller. Her short story “Crazy for You” was published in USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series. She has also published in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Inlandia, Shotgun Honey, Partners in Crime, and Paradigm Shifts.

Alex Espinoza is the author of Still Water Saints, The Five Acts of Diego León, and Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime. He’s written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Magazine, VQR, LitHub, and NPR’s All Things Considered. The recipient of fellowships from the NEA and MacDowell as well as an American Book Award, he lives in Los Angeles and is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Janet Fitch is the best-selling author of White Oleander, Paint It Black, The Revolution of Marina M., and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral, an epic of the Russian Revolution. Her short stories and essays have appeared in a variety of publications. Two of her novels and her story “The Method,” from Los Angeles Noir, have been made into feature films. The Palm Canyon mobile home in “Sunrise” belonged to her grandmother.

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times best-selling author of more than a dozen books, including Gangster Nation, Gangsterland, and The House of Secrets, which he cowrote with Brad Meltzer. His journalism has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Best American Essays. Goldberg is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he founded and directs the low-residency MFA in creative writing and writing for the performing arts.

J. D. Horn is the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the Witching Savannah series (The Line, The Source, The Void, and Jilo), the Witches of New Orleans Trilogy (The King of Bones and Ashes, The Book of the Unwinding, The Final Days of Magic), and the stand-alone Southern Gothic horror tale Shivaree. Originally from Tennessee, he lives in Palm Springs and San Francisco with his spouse, Rich, and their rescue Chihuahua, Kirby Seamus.

Ken Layne, editor and publisher of Desert Oracle, a pocket-sized field guide to the mysterious Southwest desert, hosts Desert Oracle Radio and its companion podcast from the Mojave high desert. Once a month he leaves his home alongside Joshua Tree National Park to tell eerie campfire stories at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs. Farrar, Straus & Giroux’s MCD Books recently published his first hardcover collection, Desert Oracle, Volume I.

T. Jefferson Parker is the author of twenty-five crime novels, and numerous short stories and essays. He was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Orange County, and now lives north of San Diego. He has won two Edgar Awards for best novel, an Edgar for best short story, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a Seamus Award. When not at work he enjoys fishing, hiking, and beachcombing.

Rob Roberge, from Wonder Valley in the high Mojave Desert, is the author of four books of fiction and one memoir, Liar, selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. His short fiction and essays have been widely anthologized, and he is currently at work on a novel.

Eduardo Santiago’s first novel, Tomorrow They Will Kiss, was an Edmund White Debut Fiction Award finalist. His next book, Midnight Rumba, won the New England Book Award for best fiction. His short stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Slow Trains, and the Caribbean Writer. His nonfiction was featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Advocate, and Out Traveler magazine. He is on faculty at Idyllwild Arts Academy, which sits high above Palm Springs.

Kelly Shire has published work in numerous journals, including Brevity, Entropy, and the Coachella Review. Her essay “Beautiful Music,” about long-standing Cathedral City radio station KWXY, appeared in Full Grown People. As a half-Mexican American, third-generation resident of Southern California, her writing often explores themes of place and identity. She lives south of Palm Springs with her children and husband, and is completing a memoir.