Ace Atkins: New Orleans Noir: The Classics

Grace King(1852–1932) was a New Orleans novelist and historian whose writing captured Louisiana’s complex racial identity. Her writing career began when the editor of Century challenged her to counter negative depictions of mixed-race slave owners. King’s short fiction appeared in major national magazines before being collected in Tales of a Time and Place (1892) and Balcony Stories (1893). Her most notable work of nonfiction is New Orleans: The Place and the People (1895).

Armand Lanusse(1812–1867) was an educator and poet who lived in New Orleans his entire life. In 1845 he edited and contributed to Les Cenelles, a collection of eighty-five poems written by seventeen free black Louisiana poets and the first collection of poems by African Americans ever published in the United States. In 1848 he helped establish a school for orphans of color and worked as its director until his death.

Valerie Martinis the author of ten novels, including Trespass, Mary Reilly , and Property , three collections of short fiction, and a biography of St. Francis of Assisi titled Salvation . She has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Kafka Prize (for Mary Reilly ) and Britain’s Orange Prize (for Property). Her most recent novel is The Ghost of the Mary Celeste .

Maurice Carlos Ruffinis a graduate of the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Workshop and a member of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance and the MelaNated Writers Collective. His work has appeared in Redivider, Callaloo, the Massachusetts Review, and Unfathomable City. He is the winner of the 2014 Iowa Review Fiction Award, the 2014 So to Speak Journal Short Story Award, and the 2014 William Faulkner Competition for Novel in Progress.

Julie Smithis an Edgar Award winner for best novel, and the author of four mystery series set in New Orleans and San Francisco. A former journalist, she has worked for newspapers in both those cities and now lives in New Orleans. She is the owner of booksBnimble, which publishes mysteries and other quality works digitally. In 2007 Smith edited the best-selling anthology New Orleans Noir for Akashic Books.

Eudora Welty(1909–2001) was a National Book Award — winning author of short stories and novels that center around the American South. She was born in Jackson, Mississippi, where she lived until her death. Her most famous novel, The Optimist’s Daughter (1973), takes place in New Orleans and won her the Pulitzer Prize. She is also notable for her photograph collection One Time, One Place (1971).

Tennessee Williams(1911–1983) was an American playwright and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and four Drama Critic Circle Awards. He was born in Mississippi and in 1939 moved to New Orleans, a city that inspired much of his writing, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), which won him his first Pulitzer Prize. His most famous plays include The Glass Menagerie (1944) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the stories in this anthology. “A Conscientious Marriage” by Armand Lanusse was originally published in French as “Un Mariage de Conscience” in L’Album Littéraire: Journal des Jeunes Gens, Amateurs de Littérature , Vol. 1, August 15, 1843, translated here by David and Nicole Ball; “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin was originally published in Vogue as “The Dream of an Hour” on December 6, 1894; “The Little Convent Girl” by Grace King was originally published in Balcony Stories (New York: Century, 1893); “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking” by O. Henry was originally published in McClure’s (December 1899); “The Purple Hat” by Eudora Welty was originally published in Harper’s Bazaar (November 1941), reprinted by permission of Russell & Volkening as agents for the author, copyright © 1941 by Eudora Welty, renewed 1969 by Eudora Welty; “Desire and the Black Masseur” by Tennessee Williams was originally published in New Directions in Prose and Poetry , Vol. 10 (1948), licensed here from One Arm and Other Stories (New York: New Directions, 1967), copyright © 1977, 1979 by the University of the South, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.; “Miss Yellow Eyes” by Shirley Ann Grau was originally published in The Black Prince and Other Stories (New York: Knopf, 1955), reprinted by permission of G Agency LLC, copyright © 1953; “Pleadings” by John William Corrington was originally published in Southern Review (Winter 1976), © 1976 John William Corrington; “Ritual Murder” by Tom Dent was originally published in Callaloo 2 (February 1978), © 1978 Tom Dent; “Rich” by Ellen Gilchrist was originally published in Intro 9: Close to Home , eds. George P. Garrett & Michael Mewshaw (Austin, Texas: Hendel & Reinke, 1978), copyright © 1981 by Ellen Gilchrist, reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc.; “Spats” by Valerie Martin was originally published in The Consolation of Nature and Other Stories (New York: Houghon Mifflin, 1988), © 1988 by Valerie Martin; “The Man with Moon Hands” by O’Neil De Noux was originally published in New Mystery , Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter 1993) as “Old Foister: A Folk Tale: The Man with Moon Hands,” © 1993 by O’Neil De Noux; “Rose” by John Biguenet was originally published in Esquire (January 1999), licensed here from The Torturer’s Apprentice by John Biguenet (New York: Ecco, 2001), copyright © 2000 by John Biguenet, reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers; “Mussolini and the Axeman’s Jazz” by Poppy Z. Brite was originally published in Dark Destiny: Proprietors of Fate , ed. Edward E. Kramer (Clarkston, GA: White Wolf Publishing, 1995), copyright © 1995 by Poppy Z. Brite; “GDMFSOB” by Nevada Barr was originally published in Deadly Housewives , ed. Christine Matthews (New York: William Morrow, 2006), copyright © 2006 by Nevada Barr; “Jesus Out to Sea” by James Lee Burke was originally published in Esquire (April 2006), reprinted here with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. from Jesus Out to Sea and Other Stories by James Lee Burke, copyright © 2007 by James Lee Burke, all rights reserved; “Last Fair Deal Gone Down” by Ace Atkins was originally published in Crossroad Blues by Ace Atkins (Houston: Busted Flush Press, 2010), copyright © 2010 by Ace Atkins; “Pie Man” by Maurice Carlos Ruffin was originally published in the South Carolina Review , Vol. 45, No. 1 (Fall 2012), copyright © 2012 by Maurice Carlos Ruffin.