Virtual Crime Fiction Reading Series

The first of our Crime Fiction Reading Series events is being held on Zoom. Registration is required. Here is information about our readers:

ANN APTAKER

Native New Yorker Ann Aptaker’s Cantor Gold novels have won the Lambda and Goldie awards. Her short stories have appeared in the Fedora II and III anthologies, the “Mickey Finn: 21^st Century Noir anthology Volume 1″ and the upcoming Volume 3, Switchblade magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, and the online zine Punk Soul Poet. Her novella, “A Taco, A T-Bird, A Beretta and One Furious Night,” is featured in season two of the Guns & Tacos crime fiction series. After a thirty year career as an art curator and exhibition specialist for museums and galleries, she was a professor of art history in New York. In between, Aptaker did a stint as an investigative report writer for a private investigations firm in Novato, California, before returning to New York. Aptaker now writes full time.

TEEL JAMES GLENN

Teel James Glenn’s poetry and short stories have been printed in over two hundred magazines including Weird Tales, Mystery Weekly, Pulp Adventures, Space & Time, Mad, Cirsova, Silverblade and Sherlock Holmes Mystery. His novel “A Cowboy in Carpathia: A Bob Howard Adventure” won best novel 2021 in the Pulp Factory Awards. He is also the winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Award for Best Author. His website is TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com.

V.S. KEMANIS

V.S. Kemanis, attorney, dancer, choreographer and mother, has published five volumes of short fiction, the latest of which, “Your Pick: Selected Stories,” won the Eric Hoffer Award for best story collection. Her work has appeared in journals and magazines, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and anthologies, most recently “Autumn Noir.” Kemanis taps her experience in New York’s criminal justice and court systems for her novels of legal suspense and courtroom drama. “Power Blind,” her sixth novel featuring protagonist Dana Hargrove, was released on Jan. 25. Kemanis served on the board of the New York Chapter of Mystery Writers of America from 2018 – 2021.

CATHERINE MAIORISI

Catherine Maiorisi is the author of the NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli mystery series featuring Corelli and her reluctant partner, Detective P.J. Parker. The four books in the series, “A Matter of Blood,” “The Blood Runs Cold,” “A Message in Blood,” and “Legacy in the Blood,” are available in ebook, paperback and audiobook format. Maiorisi has also published four romance novels, a general fiction novel, and several romance and mystery short stories. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.  Visit Catherine at www.catherinemaiorisi.com.

JEFF MARKOWITZ

Jeff Markowitz is the author of five crime fiction novels, including the award-winning dark comedy, “Death and White Diamonds.” In October 2021, a puzzle-hunt based on his novella “Motive for Murder” raised more than $1 million for services to at-risk children and families in New York City. In 2022, Jeff has short stories due out in “Jewish Noir 2” and in “Mid-Atlantic Tales.” Markowitz spent more than forty years creating community-based programs, services, and supports for children and adults with autism, before retiring in 2018 to devote more time to writing. He is a past president of the New York Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

RICHIE NARVAEZ

A former president of the MWA New York Chapter, Richie Narvaez is the author of “Roachkiller and Other Stories,” “Noiryorican,” and “Hipster Death Rattle,” which has been optioned for a possible TV series on the CW. His YA historical novel,  “Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco,” won an Agatha Award and an Anthony Award. He lives in the Bronx.