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James Sallis President of 2009 Jury |
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| 13/11/2009 |
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US writer James Sallis will preside over the jury that will present the Black Lion and other prizes at this year’s Courmayeur Noir in Festival. This will also be an unforgettable opportunity for audiences to hear the author speak about his work and the film adaptation of his bestseller Drive, currently in production, directed by Neil Marshall and starring Hugh Jackman.
Sallis studied at Tulane University in New Orleans and lived in London and throughout the US (New York, Boston, Pennsylvania, Texas) before settling in Phoenix, Arizona. Sallis is often considered a southern author, since many of his stories are set in New Orleans and rural southern America, yet it was his nomadic nature that influenced his writing style.
In 1992, Sallis began a series of noir novels set in New Orleans featuring African American private eye Lew Griffin. More than crime novels, Sallis’ books are reflections of America.
In 2003 he began a new series, a trilogy featuring main character John Turner, an ex-cop/ex-con/ex-therapist seeking refuge in a cabin in the woods outside Cypress Grove, a small town in Tennessee. He spends his days trying and hoping to be forgotten by the world, running away from the ghosts of his past that resurface every so often in order to be exorcised. But Turner also evolves over the course of the three novels. In the second instalment of the trilogy, Cripple Creek, he comes out of self-isolation and becomes a deputy sheriff.
A prolific writer, Sallis has flanked his noir writing with the avant-garde novel Renderings, spy novel Death Will Have Your Eyes, many short stories and essays, four collections of poetry and a biography of Chester Himes. He has furthermore written literary and music criticism, and translated authors such as Raymond Queneau, Blaise Cendrars, Mikhail Lermontov and Boris Pasternak. Sallis plays numerous musical instruments, including the guitar, French horn, mandolin, sitar and Dobro guitar. He has also acted in an independent film.
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