Noir Does Dallas

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Today, November 22, 2013, marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. The white Xs in Dealey Plaza that demarcated the tragedy have recently been paved over, but the event left “a permanent black scar on [Dallas] history that can never be erased,” writes editor David Hale Smith in his introduction to Dallas Noir. “On that day in 1963, Dallas became American noir.”

It’s no coincidence that Dallas Noir, an anthology of short fiction, was published earlier this month. It’s a dark tribute by contemporary authors—including Ben Fountain, Kathleen Kent, and Clay Reynolds—who have deep connections to a city that Hale compares to “a beautiful woman with poison under her fingernails.” The book is divided into three sections titled “Cowboys,” “Rangers” and “Mavericks,” and each story is set in a different Dallas neighborhood. In a review for The Dallas Morning News, Joyce Sàenz Harris addresses those who might think Dallas is too dull for such a literary treatment: “Perhaps you haven’t gotten out much and seen the dark edges of Big D for yourself.” This collection explores those dark edges with stories featuring femme fatales, gangbangers, lonely waitresses and a Civil War reenactment gone wrong.

David Hale Smith will join a panel of contributing authors on Dec. 6 at Austin’s BookPeople to discuss the anthology.