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Courtesy of Akashic Books
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Courtesy of Akashic Books
Scott Phillips
Pull up a chair and sit down next to Scott Phillips and his wry humor and good-natured demeanor will immediately disarm you. But in the pages of his novels you will meet the other Scott Phillips, the prolific scribe who inhabits a gray world filled with amoral characters doing unseemly things.
It is on these dimly lit streets where Phillips mixes his passion and profession, walking alongside readers in St. Louis Noir, the latest release from Akashic Books’ omnibus series of noir-tinged crime anthologies set in various cities around the world. The book will be published August 2, three years after Phillips was tabbed as editor by Johnny Temple, the “very patient” owner/founder of Akashic Books and member of the band Girls vs. Boys.
Then Phillips began a crime wave of his very own, rounding up suspects with a St. Louis connection whom he felt would be a good match for the project. He then compiled their efforts into one gritty volume set on the streets of Frontenac, the Central West End, Downtown, Ferguson and other surrounding environs like East St. Louis and Sauget, Illinois.
Phillips lends his own talents as well, bringing the total body count to 13 works of fatalist fiction as well as a poetic interlude featuring Poet Laureate Michael Castro. Joining him as accessories are St. Louis Post-Dispatch film critic Calvin Wilson; LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn, a fiction writer whom Phillips himself taught; and writers John Lutz, Paul D. Marks, Colleen J. McElroy, Jason Makansi, S.L. Coney, Laua Benedict, Umar Lee, Chris Barsanti, Linda Smith and Jedidiah Ayres.
In real life, Phillips is a law-abiding citizen and strident advocate for all things St. Louis. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Phillips lived and wrote in Paris and Los Angeles before settling here in 2003. He is the author of seven novels and a short story anthology. He also edited two anthologies prior to St. Louis Noir. In 2005 his New York Times Notable Book, The Ice Harvest, was adapted for the big screen starring John Malkovich, Randy Quaid, Connie Nielsen and John Cusack. A natural storyteller, the best-selling author has also brought his craft to the people by teaching writing workshops in conjunction with Subterranean Books and organizing Noir At The Bar, which unites crime-themed writers and readers in an ongoing series of literary events.
Although Noir at the Bar began a decade ago in Philadelphia, Phillips and co-conspirator Jed Ayres brought it to St. Louis in 2008, where it took off before expanding to several American cities and internationally to Iceland, Scotland and Australia.
St. Louis Magazine took a deposition from Phillips about creating St. Louis Noir.
This interview has been edited and condensed for publication.
What is it about St. Louis that makes it a fit for this series?
Actually, I think any big city is ripe for these books. St. Louis is an interesting city. It’s a rust belt town, and it’s got its rich and its poor and a really vibrant mix of communities, and those kinds of stories lend themselves to noir which is not necessarily crime—it’s more fiction about desperation, and people acting against their own best interests and knowingly doing so.
One of the best stories in the book is LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn’s story. I don’t think you can really say it’s a crime story, but it’s very noir. It’s the first story I requested for the anthology. She was in my writing workshop and I had read an early draft of it and as soon as Johnny [Temple] signed me up to do the book, I contacted her and she worked on it a little more and expanded it.
People think noir is fedoras and 1940s Los Angeles and crime. But really, it’s fatality in the sense of fate and doomed people acting as if they are not doomed.
What kind of scene does St. Louis have for crime fiction writing?
It’s pretty good. My friend Jed Ayres is writing and publishing quite a bit of noir fiction. There’s a very good fiction writing community here, not just noir. LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn is a fiction writer and she’s not really a crime writer but she wrote this wonderful story that fit right into the book.
Linda Smith is a poet and she wrote a terrific story that fit right into the book and again I don’t know if it is exactly a crime story. It has some crime in it but it is by no means a mystery.
I think there’s a distinction between a mystery and a crime story and a noir story. They are slightly different genres like science fiction and fantasy and sword and sorcery are on a continuum but they are not the same.
What was the process for editing the book?
As an editor, I would just contact people and ask them if they could give me a story. In most cases I just left them alone to do their thing. S.L. Coney sent me a piece that was fully formed, set in Dogtown, and really surprising and really dark, just a great story.
Some of the stories needed a little more work than others, but not a lot of work on my part. I got stories from Laura Benedict and John Lutz that didn’t need any work at all because they are professional writers and they know how to edit their own stuff.
Some of the stories were a little rough around the edges and needed a little more pruning in terms of length. So I would consult with the author, and as soon as they signed off on it and we both were nodding our heads, we were ready.
Everybody did a great job. With some of them it is their first published story.
How were the writers selected? Did you get to select them?
I did. There were some writers that were suggested to me and to Johnny. I don’t remember who suggested Michael Castro, but Johnny was very enthusiastic about it. We were really lucky to get him, and the poems are amazing. It never would have occurred to me to put poems in an anthology of fiction, but I think they break the book up very nicely.
A couple of people I knew from my workshop, like Linda Smith. Again I hesitate to call her piece a crime story, but it’s very noir. It’s called Tell Them Your Name Is Barbara and it is set in the Central West End and East St. Louis. I think it could be a novel if she wanted to expand it.
A couple of people, like Paul Marks, contacted me when they heard I was the editing anthology and said “Hey can I be in this? I used to live in St. Louis.”
I knew Umar Lee was writing fiction. I threw it out there because I knew he’d be an interesting add, and he had a really interesting idea. It’s probably the pulpiest story in the book.
With Calvin [Wilson], he had talked to me about writing a noir novel once, and I knew he could write. He’s one of those critics that even if we disagree on the merits on the given film, I like to hear what he has to say. I respect his opinion a lot. So I asked him if he wanted to do a short story and he said yes.
So yes, I did go to some local people that I knew could write and they weren’t necessarily fiction writers, but I knew they would be good for the anthology. I think we did pretty well.
How are St. Louis’ neighborhoods represented?
I basically asked people what they wanted to write about and just let it rip. At a certain point I realized we didn’t have anything across the river and I thought, “Well, you can’t do a noir book about St. Louis without East St. Louis at least appearing once.” But then Linda turned in her story, which is partially set in East St. Louis.
I am embarrassed to admit I was the last one to get my story in. I actually was not going to have a story in it, but then Johnny said, “Are you kidding? Write me a story, buddy.” And so I wrote one and set it in Sauget. It was fun! I’ve been over there once for lunch one day and I went looking for restaurant supplies one time with Jon Parker [of Parker’s Table] and I was fascinated by the fact that you have this giant used restaurant supply warehouse next to all these strip clubs. Since I’ve written about strip clubs before I thought I’d revisit that.
St. Louis Noir comes out at a very interesting time within the context of the community’s conversation about violence. Does this have any impact on the book?
The anthology was commissioned before any of this happened. Actually, we really wanted to avoid the feeling that this was capitalizing on it in any way…but you can’t ignore it either. You cannot turn a blind eye to it. A lot of the stories are about the economic and social realities and political realities of the city. You can’t avoid that either. So it’s a delicate issue, and a lot of these city noir anthologies have been that way.
Frankly a lot of noir is about these cultural and social tensions. That’s the heart of it. It could be said that noir started with the hardboiled novels of the ’30s, but it really came of age right after World War II when American society changed really fast as young men who left for the war as boys came back as hardened combat vets who were trying to discover how they were going to live back in suburbia. That’s where the genre hit its stride.
How do you balance your personality with that of the characters you write?
I hear that all the time. When my first book came out my British publisher didn’t use my author photograph. He thought I looked too nice. I don’t know. I guess I come off as pretty friendly, happy person. I feel like a curmudgeon all the time. I think of myself as being really grouchy and cynical and nasty which doesn’t lend itself externally.
Are you pleased with the success of Noir At The Bar?
I am very proud that my one lasting contribution to literary culture is something I can’t make a dime off of.
St. Louis Noir launches at Meshuggah Café (6269 Delmar) on Saturday, July 30 at 7 p.m. with a slideshow of historic black-and-white photos of the city and readings by Phillips, Calvin Wilson, S.L. Coney, Jedidah Ayres, LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn and John Lutz. Noir authors will also read at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters (1640 S. Lindbergh) on August 16 at 7 p.m. For more information, go to akashicbooks.com.
