4 minute read
DIVERSIONS
presents—the fight for readers, the limited calendar space at venues, the harsh push for publicity.
Award-winning writer Shawn Reilly Simmons helps organize the Bethesda-based Malice Domestic conference, which gives out the Agatha Awards, one of crime fiction’s preeminent prizes. Simmons notes the strength of the community’s support in the face of competition. “Writing tends to be a solitary endeavor,” Simmons says, “and Malice is a chance for authors to gather together and find camaraderie and community, as well as introduce their work to new fans and readers.”
Kristopher Zgorski, who runs the popular and influential crime fiction blog BOLO Books and is based in Maryland, tries hard to keep his community ties strong. “I am very active in the crime fiction community, I do have many friends around here, so I am always conscious of not giving any priority or preference to those individuals,” he says. “In the end, my goal is to point readers toward stories I love in the hopes that they too will enjoy those works. My loyalty lies with readers and the writing community respects that by and large—both locally and beyond.”
And since 2015, I’ve run a rowdy regional reading series called D.C.’s Noir at the Bar, a gathering of crime fiction writers at Columbia Heights’ Wonderland Ballroom, where drinks are downed and short stories are shared. After the March shutdown, I took the weekly series online. Given its effects on businesses, I dedicated the readings to support local independent bookstores, and I only featured writers from the D.C. region. Over the rushed course of seven weeks, I was able to bring nearly 70 writers on screen to read their work to an enthusiastic audience that always numbered in the hundreds. Their warmth transferred over from the in-person events we used to have prior to the pandemic.
“At the store, we comment on that support every time we host an event featuring a local mystery author—they come out for each other,” says Eileen McGervey, the owner of Arlington’s One More Page Books. “They share the joy of fellow writers’ new books, articles, and other successes. In listening in on Sisters in Crime Chesapeake Chapter meetings when we first opened, I admired how writers helped and learned from each other—[from] what’s the impact on a body from a gunshot from a certain caliber weapon to advice on pitching agents.”
It’s a unique, somewhat surprising thing, the enthusiasm crime writers here have for each other. But perhaps the reason this region has produced such good work is because its writers—placed squarely in the city that’s an avatar for national political conflict, but given the tools to dismantle it—are keenly aware of this attitude, and we’ve (consciously or not) chosen to write against it. The coldness and aloofness of emotional, physical, and social cruelty has made its way into our fiction, but not into our character. Like the great crime writers that came before us, we’re still scrutinizing society. And we’re hoping, somehow, to find a better version of it.
Give the gift of local news.
washingtoncitypaper.com/ membership
Catch Cow
By Brendan Emmett Quigley
Across 1. Element #18 6. Salty approval 9. Creatures created from Medusa’s blood 13. Little dog 15. Meditation practice 16. Sign of Jesus 17. Harmonize? 19. Element #10 20. Dome-covered room 21. Signals to act 22. Five lines on sheet music 23. Govt. group that is collecting emails 24. Time frame that Louis Armstrong can perform in? 26. Shaving application 28. “That happened so long ___” 29. Dog in a rabbit’s coop? 34. Light rail car 38. “If you want my opinion ...” 39. Veggie in mattar paneer 40. Toy collector 41. Downton Abbey mother 42. Crone leans? 44. Student Success Grants org. 46. Slopping cry 47. Evidence that a post-surgery support works? 53. Letter closer: Abbr. 56. Statistical bit 57. Speaking engagement? 58. What might be on a filthy screen 59. Barely squeezed (by) 60. Style of speaking like Chevy Chase’s detective? 62. Only just 63. Jumping org. 64. Good place? 65. “Regardless of problems” channel 67. Rip (from) Down 1. “C’mon, dude!” 2. Chops crops 3. Scolds 4. Never to be repeated 5. Big source of COVID news 6. Early resident of the Valley of Mexico 7. “Ai-yi-yi-yi” 8. Anne’s twins? 9. “No big” 10. Golfer nicknamed “The Slammer” 11. Brigham Young University city 12. Muscular quality 14. Put up tents 18. Fast asleep 22. John Hancock, briefly 24. Comic who said, “I’ve arranged with my executor to be buried in Chicago. Because when I die, I want to still remain active politically.” 25. Route 27. They’re produced by the moon 29. [I drank too fast!] 30. It might cover a lot of space 31. Newswire letters 32. Pointer in the kitchen, maybe 33. GOTV ad maker 35. Daredevil’s action 36. ___-J (“Breezeblocks” band) 37. ECG requesters 40. Energy bar with a rock climber on its packaging 42. [I didn’t get my
66. The Misery Index
way!] 43. Bathtub gin, e.g. 45. Thinking-green prefix 47. Latte ingredient 48. Fall guys use them 49. Ultrasound targets 50. Room for people who speak in code? 51. Large flightless birds 52. Muffin grain 54. Mystical characters 55. Aortic insert 58. Take top billing 60. Roly-poly 61. Hack with an axe
