Mississippi Noir with William Boyle and RaShell R. Smith-Spears

Tom Andes hosts Blood Jet Reading Series’ monthly fiction night at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, December 6. This month, for the final fiction night of the season, two contributors to the Akashic Books Mississippi Noir anthology, edited by Tom Franklin will read: William Boyle and RaShall R. Smith Spears.

William Boyle is from Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of the novel Gravesend, which was recently translated into French and published by François Guérif as #1,000 in the Rivages/Noir collection. Gravesend has been shortlisted, with 4 other novels, for the Prix Polar SNCF 2017, one of the major literary awards in crime fiction, delivered by the French railways national company. It was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, as well. Boyle is also the author of a book of short stories, Death Don’t Have No Mercy. His second novel, Everything is Broken, will be released in France by Gallmeister in late 2017. He currently lives in Oxford, MS.

RaShell R. Smith-Spears grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She is Associate Professor of English at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. Smith-Spears has an MFA from the University of Memphis and has published creative works in Short Story, Black Magnolias, Mississippi Noir, Sycorax’s Daughter, A Lime Jewel, and Dying Dahlia Review, among others. She has presented readings at the University of Southern Missisissippi in Hattiesburg, MS, Jackson State University, Hinds County Public Library in Jackson, MS, and Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta, GA.