The Naked City

“South Central Noir” focuses on one of Los Angeles’s most recognized neighborhoods. As Gary Phillips says in the introduction “The settings herein reflect South Central today or chronicle its colorful past, such as the days of the jazz joints along Central Avenue…From South Park to East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, from the borderlands of Watts to the one-time Southern Pacific railroad tracks paralleling Slauson Avenue, take a tour of a section of Los Angeles that may be unfamiliar to you but you will get to know, at least a little, by the time you finish reading this entertaining and engaging anthology.” Continue reading The Naked City

Brian DunlapDecember 10, 2022January 31, 2023Leave a comment

L.A. Literary History

The Forgotten Noir Detective

“Leslie Turner White served as inspiration for Chandler’s Marlowe, and whose autobiography, Me, Detective (1936), played a pivotal if largely forgotten role in the formation of American noir.” Continue reading The Forgotten Noir Detective

Brian DunlapJune 9, 2022January 31, 2023Leave a comment

Literary Criticism

Will The Coronavirus Outbreak Lead to New L.A. Crime Fiction? The Jury Is Out

What new L.Á. crime fiction will the Coronavirus Outbreak lead to? Continue reading Will The Coronavirus Outbreak Lead to New L.A. Crime Fiction? The Jury Is Out

Brian DunlapApril 9, 2020January 31, 2023Leave a comment

L.A. Literary History

Literary History: Why L.A. Is The Perpetual Dark Heart of Crime Writing

By Jeffery Fleishman
FROM: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles is a madman’s prayer wrapped inside a murderous dream.

It’s homeless on sidewalks and hustlers in the hills. It’s laborers and housekeepers, and billboards of lust, dystopia, apes, robots, Chewbaccas, Kim and Kanye, and Lady Gaga’s newest thing. It’s clear skies, no mosquitoes and laser-sculpted people with money, hedgerows and sins. A crime writer can make of it what he or she wants, like “Westworld” or a lover who gives you a kiss and a key, and one day changes the locks.

Continue reading “Literary History: Why L.A. Is The Perpetual Dark Heart of Crime Writing”

Brian DunlapOctober 23, 2019January 2, 2024Leave a comment

Articles, Los Angeles Literary Events

Joint Mar Vista Artwalk/Venice Art Crawl and the 6th Annual Poetry Circus and the 6th Annual Poetry Circus

By Brian Dunlap

64461391_10104579167363754_3738690222813085696_o There was poetry in all parts of Los Angeles this past Saturday, July 13. Not unlike most days in the city, where there are literary events on the Westside, downtown, Long Beach, even out at Cellar Door Books in Riverside. First, I was at a reading at the Venice Library, then drove to the Merry-Go Round at Griffith Park for more. The first a part of the joint Mar Vista Artwalk/Venice Art Crawl. The second, the 6^th Annual The Poetry Circus.