We’re incredibly proud to say that at the NOIRCON 2014 conference Soho Crime will receive a pair of awards. Soho publisher Bronwen Hruska will receive the Jay and Deen Kogan Award for outstanding publishing in the crime fiction genre and Soho Crime author Fuminori Nakamura will be honored with the David L. Goodis Award for Noir Fiction.
Nakamura (The Thief, Evil and the Mask, and this year’s Last Winter, We Parted) has won several of Japan’s most prestigious literary prizes, including the Oe, Noma, and Akutagawa prizes. The English-language translations of his work have received stunning critical acclaim, including selection by Wall Street Journal’s in their “Best Books” lists of 2012 and 2013 as well as being short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Wall Street Journal book critic Tom Nolan, who will be conducting an interview with Nakamura at NoirCon, has described Nakamura as a “Japanese Zen-noir master.” It is a sentiment echoed by Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin, who recently described Nakamura’s writing as, “Crime fiction that pushes past the bounds of genre, occupying its own nightmare realm.”
That is to say, an author of noir worthy of the Goodis name.
But wait… There’s more! Our publisher, Bronwen Hruska, is being recognized for outstanding work in the crime fiction genre by receiving the Jay and Deen Kogan Award, last given to Otto Penzler of Mysterious Books. Of Bronwen, NoirCon writes that, “She has led the way in translation publishing and opened many doors for women in the field.”
NOIRCON, originally known as GoodisCon in honor of noir fiction pioneer David Goodis, is a biennial tribute to all things noir from literature to film to art and poetry. It will take place from October 30th through November 2nd, 2014. This conference is produced and headquartered at Society Hill Playhouse.
In addition to Nakamura and Hruska, Soho Crime author Stuart Neville will be in attendance as part of his North American tour for the fourth Belfast Novel, The Final Silence.
We are greatly honored by NoirCon and special thaanks are due to Dr. Louis Boxer and Deen Kogan, director of Society Hill Playhouse, co-chairs for NOIRCON 2014. For further information call 215-923-0210 or check the website: www.noircon.com.