06/09/2023 - 7:00 pm - National Centre for Writing, Dragon Hall, Norwich
We welcome Margot Douaihy for the annual Noirwich lecture to examine the intersection of noir, new technologies, and inclusivity. The discussion offers a critical exploration of the ways authors and creators are leveraging new approaches, multimodal methodologies, and tools like Virtual and Augmented Reality to create immersive and interactive narrative experiences that challenge the received canon of noir. We also evaluate how authentically diverse characters, intersectional storylines, and divergent narratological perspectives expand the genre's boundaries and appeal.
Drawing on interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks, illustrative case studies, and new research, we explore the interplay between technology, storytelling, and empathy, and how noir reflects and shapes understandings of identity and liberatory creative praxes. This lecture also examines how innovations in noir provide new platforms for historically marginalized perspectives, contending that the evolving dynamics between storytelling, technology, and inclusivity are helping to transform the genre and shape cultural narratives.
This lecture is relevant to practitioners, educators, and researchers in creative writing, literary studies, media studies, game studies, cultural studies, digital humanities, and beyond.
Presented in partnership with the National Centre for Writing
This event is FREE to attend, but booking is essential.
Margot Douaihy is the author of the mystery novel Scorched Grace, the inaugural title of Gillian Flynn Books. Douaihy is originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, now living in Northampton, Massachusetts, in the US. In fall 2023, Margot will join Emerson College as an Assistant Professor in Popular Fiction Writing and Literature.
Praise for Scorched Grace
“Margot Douaihy’s Scorched Grace wound up being the perfect kind of warped thriller to kick off Gillian Flynn’s new publishing imprint ... reads like an epiphany.”
- Los Angeles Times
“So much more than a mystery – which is my favourite kind of mystery.”
- Gillian Flynn
07/09/2023 - 7:00 pm - Waterstones, Castle Street, Norwich
Bridget Walsh (The Tumbling Girl), Natalie Marlow (Needless Alley) and Jacqueline Crooks (Women’s Prize shortlisted Fire Rush) discuss the purposes and possibilities of historical crime fiction, with Tom Benn (Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award winner Oxblood).
This event is FREE to attend, but booking is essential.
Bridget Walsh was born in London to Irish immigrant parents. Bridget's debut novel, The Tumbling Girl, was written on the MA Creative Writing Crime Fiction course at UEA and won the UEA Little, Brown Award for Crime Fiction in 2019. Before this, she was an English teacher for 23 years, before leaving the profession to pursue her writing.
Praise for The Tumbling Girl
“Smart, funny and expertly plotted, The Tumbling Girl cartwheels off the page... A cracking start to a charismatic and distinctive series.”
- Emma Styles
'A sparkling novel and a complete delight to read. The characters and world are wild, vivid and enchanting. A wry, warm and proper rib-tickling slice of dirty Victorian gothic.”
- Julia Crouch
Natalie Marlow is a working-class writer who was born and still lives in the West Midlands. After completing her MA in Crime Writing at the UEA, she began her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London. Natalie was inspired to write Needless Alley by her great grandmother, who was one of thirteen children and lived and worked on the Birmingham canals.
Praise for Needless Alley
“Transplanting the hardboiled Hollywood noir of the 1940s to the backstreets of 1933 Birmingham, [Needless Alley] has all the seamy glitter and cynical grime of the genre.”
- Daily Mail
“A great sense of period and place...creates an atmosphere of mounting menace and dread.”
- The Times
Jacqueline Crooks grew up in London’s migrant community in the 1970s, carving a space through music, culture and politics. For her work with charities and her short stories, Crooks has been nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award.
Praise for Fire Rush
Named a Most Anticipated Book by The Washington Post, Bustle, The Millions, and The Chicago Review of Books
"An exceptional and stunningly original novel by a major new writer."
- Bernardine Evaristo
08/09/2023 - 7:00 pm - Waterstones, Castle Street, Norwich
Join authors Steve Hollyman (Esc&Ctrl) and Eliza Clark (Penance) for a discussion of the intersection between contemporary crime narratives and digital forms, one that will prompt us to consider the increasingly provisional nature of truth and identity in the digital age.
This event is FREE to attend, but booking is essential.
Eliza Clark is from Newcastle Upon Tyne and lives in London. Her debut novel Boy Parts was published by Influx Press in July 2020, and it has since been Blackwell’s Fiction Book of the Year. In 2023, Eliza was included in Granta magazine’s ‘Best of British Novelists list’, a once-in-a-decade list which hails the literary stars of the future.
Praise for Penance
“Eliza Clark is a genius with voice and a master of flipped expectations. Penance astonished me with its breadth, wit and confidence.”
- Julie Armfield
“It’s delightfully and deviously rooted in the now with its delectable internet and culture references and evocative and real-feeling portrait of women.”
- Dazed Digital
Steve Hollyman’s first novel, Lairies, was published in 2021, and appeared as a Book of the Day in The Guardian. His second novel, the metafictional murder mystery Esc&Ctrl, was published in 2022. Steve is vocalist and guitarist in the three-piece alternative rock group CreepJoint, and works as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing.
Praise for Esc&Ctrl
“Masterful and worked through with copious and ebullient invention without seeming overworked … an immaculate piece of work I wholeheartedly wish I’d written myself.”
- Sam North
“[A] metametametafictional mind-bender… like Robert Anton Wilson and Bret Easton Ellis smashing out an internet noir thriller at the end of a Baudrillard binge.”
- Stu Hennigan, Lunate Books of the Year
09/09/2023 - 7:00 pm - Waterstones, Castle Street, Norwich
Visionary writer Nick Harkaway brings his new novel, Titanium Noir, to Noirwich. Cool, fast and filmic, Harkaway’s latest pushes the detective novel into uncharted territory. He will be joined by Louise Doughty, the prize-winning author of Platform Seven (adapted for ITV) and Apple Tree Yard (adapted for BBC1), who will discuss her tense new chase thriller, A Bird in Winter. Chaired by Richard Hand, UEA Professor of Media Practice in English.
Presented with support from our event sponsor The Crime Vault.
This event is FREE to attend, but booking is essential
Louise Doughty was born in the East Midlands and is the author of ten novels, one work of non-fiction, five plays for radio and a TV mini-series. She attended University of East Anglia, where she did the MA Creative Writing course with Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter. Her most recent book is Platform Seven (2019), currently being adapted as a four-part drama for ITVX. Her new thriller, A Bird in Winter, is out in August 2023.
Praise for A Bird in Winter
“A nail-bitingly tense and compelling spy novel.”
- Paula Hawkins
“The perfect thriller.”
- Stylist
Nick Harkaway is the author of five novels, Titanium Noir, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, and Gnomon, as well as a nonfiction work about digital culture, The Blind Giant: Being Human in a Digital World. He is also a regular blogger for The Bookseller’s FutureBook website.
Praise for Titanium Noir
“Titanium Noir is deft and hectic and so damn fun. It's a story-telling amphetamine laced with social commentary and it's terrific.”
- Lauren Beukes
“Titanium Noir is a beautifully twisted, fast-paced new-cyberpunk fairy tale. The perfect blend of Raymond Chandler and William Gibson.”
- Terry Miles
On the hunt for exhilarating new crime fiction reads this autumn? Enter the Noirwich + The Crime Vault book bundle giveaway competition!
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We were honoured to welcome the award-winning Soviet-Ukrainian American and French novelist and artist Yelena Moskovich for the annual Noirwich lecture 2022. Read a transcript of their lecture here.
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UEA MA Crime Writing Graduate Helen Marsden reviews our 2022 event 'Murder Most Modern' with Scarlett Brade and Bella Mackie.
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UEA MA Crime Writing Graduate Helen Marsden reviews the Noirwich Lecture 2022, delivered by Yelena Moskovich.
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