Brooklyn Noir started off as a love letter from Akashic Books founder Johnny Temple to his beloved borough. That 2004 mystery anthology was such a success that Akashic embarked on a multi-city Noir series. Each anthology is comprised of original noir stories written and edited by authors who feel a kinship to their particular city — from DC to Dublin, and Los Angeles to London. Boldtype's Diana Metzger chats with Temple about his favorite cities, what makes a story particularly "noir," and which modern-day politician he thinks is straight out of a noir novel.

Boldtype: How did the Noir series come about, and what first drew you to the project?

Johnny Temple: It was never initially intended to be a series. It was originally a single book: Brookyln Noir. This collection of stories began through conversations between myself and [editor] Tim McLoughlin. There are so many diverse neighborhoods within Brooklyn, so we first thought about it as being several books — each focusing on a different part of Brooklyn. Then it morphed into us turning it into a compilation of stories. Brooklyn Noir became a huge success for us; the New York Times wrote a big feature on it, and many of the stories were in that year's edition of The Best American Mystery Stories. The stories really seemed to capture the voice of Brooklyn. We wanted to extend that idea to other regions and cities.

BT: How would you classify a story as being "noir"?

JT: We, at Akashic Books, define it pretty broadly. I'd say a noir story is one of dark fiction. There's a prominent crime and/or criminal element within each story. I like to think that the protagonist is always in trouble and it just gets worse. Our noir stories are broad and unique because of the broad range of contributing writers.

BT: How do you find the authors and editors for each collection?

JT: Some come to us, and others we seek out. The editor for each book is the most important decision to the process — they have a background with that city and a tone they want to set. For example, for Washington, DC, we knew immediately that we wanted George Pelicano. He was an obvious first choice: he had certain concerns and was incredibly invested in the collection.

BT: There are some sequels to certain cities Akashic has released; what do you chose to put in those?

JT: Like Brooklyn Noir 2 and D.C. Noir 2, we've taken old original fiction relating to that city — the classics. We have no problem getting permission to re-print all these stories. People seem to want to support our growing publishing house — we've gained a great reputation with this series.

BT: How do you choose the cities?

JT: It started with cities that I personally, as an editor, was most interested in. In my past life, I was a musician, so I've traveled to most of the locations in the series, except for our upcoming collection, Trinidad Noir — which is also not a city, but we keep the collection true to our geographic concept of how the stories are divided up.

BT: Are you personally attached to any specific collections within the series?

JT: Brooklyn and D.C., because I know the cities the best. I really like Los Angeles Noir because I knew LA as a musician, but over the past few years, I've gotten to know it as a great book town. We came into that collection late, seeing how it's the birthplace of noir film, but it won the Edgar Award and was one of the The Los Angeles Times' best books of that year. I also love New Orleans Noir. Half of the book is set before Hurricane Katrina, and half is set afterwards. There's a real look at the beauty of the city versus its traumatized presence. I really do love them all. People sometimes ask if this is becoming a shtick, but it's not — each collection is carefully curated.

BT: Any classic noir novels you'd recommend?

JT: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Everyone recommends it, but it really is a genre-defining book. It's dark and creepy as hell.

BT: Are there any contemporary figures or current events that you think feel very noir?

JT: No Democrat or Republican could deny that Dick Cheney is straight out of a noir novel. I don't even think Cheney himself would deny it.

BT: What story elements do you feel distinguish each city?

JT: The city's characters, or characters within different city areas, set the cities apart from one another. When we do a new city, the most important readers we try to focus on are the locals. If the readers who live in that particular city embrace the stories, we know others will too. We want the books to feel locally authentic. One city collection that was interesting to see come together was Havana. Stylistic elements run through all the stories. It was really amazing to see those key issues that came out in every story, those concerns of the people. The reader really gets what tone their desperation takes.

BT: Any upcoming books in the series that you're specifically looking forward to?

JT: We have Portland, Seattle, Rome, Paris, Istanbul, and many more that are being worked on right now. Istanbul is incredibly thrilling. The book has stories from mostly Turkish writers — stories that we translate into English, with the exception of two authors, one of whom is Lydia Lunch, a really great Brooklyn writer.

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