XXV edition
8/13 December 2015
Noirmeister Joe R. Lansdale is the recipient of the 2015 Raymond Chandler Award
American author Joe R. Lansdale will be honored with the prestigious Raymond Chandler Award at Courmayeur, on the occasion of the Noir in Festival running December 8-13.
American author Joe R. Lansdale will be honored with the prestigious Raymond Chandler Award at Courmayeur, on the occasion of the Noir in Festival running December 8-13.
With over forty novels and hundreds of stories to his credit, Lansdale is perhaps the most prolific and brilliant writer working in the noir genre today. With models such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mark Twain and Jack London, but also the science fiction of Ray Bradbury and Fredric Brown, as well as comic strips, B movies and "pulp" fiction, Lansdale’s novels are a blend of his jaded sense of humor, unbridled imagination and an unsparing description of reality in its most ruthless, violent and absurd incarnations. His books include The Drive-In and The Drive-In 2, Mucho Mojo, Two-Bear Mambo, Bad Chili, Rumble Tumble, Edge of Dark Water, Devil Red, The Bottoms (winner of an Edgar Award in 2001), Bubba Ho-Tep, and Hap & Leonard.
At Courmayeur, Lansdale will be presenting his latest novel, Honky Tonk Samurai (published in Italian by Einaudi): a new investigative romp featuring the popular characters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine.
Lansdale’s novels are more and more frequently adapted for the big and small screen. This year has seen the Italian release of Cold in July, the Jim Mickle-directed noir that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, while the Sundance TV-produced TV series Hap & Leonard is in post-production. Lansdale himself is currently co-producing The Bottoms, based on his novel of the same name (winner of the 2001 Edgar Award) and starring Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman; as well as The Drive-In, directed by Greg Nicotero.
Lansdale has also doubled as a screenwriter of animated comic book series including Batman: the Animated Series, and the animated short Jonah Hex. He also wrote the comic book Conan and the Songs of the Dead; his latest sci-fi comic book saga, The Steam Man, was published in October by Dark Horse.
The Raymond Chandler Award is a lifetime achievement award that Noir in Festival has bestowed on masters of the noir genre in the past, including Jeffery Deaver, Henning Mankell, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, Scott Turow and John le Carré, to name just a few of the many writers who have come to Courmayeur to pick up their awards.
On the Italian front, new noirs being showcased at Courmayeur include the latest novels by Donato Carrisi (La ragazza nella nebbia), Carlo Lucarelli (Il tempo delle iene), the popular writing duo Bonini-De Cataldo (La notte di Roma), and Maurizio De Giovanni (Cuccioli per i bastardi di Pizzofalcone). And the Belgian writer Pieter Aspe, hailed as the new Simenon, will be on hand with his novel The Dreyse Incident.
