Calamity Town

George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans might not be looking forward to this fall’s first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact on New Orleans and America’s Gulf Coast (since it could well affect the U.S. midterm elections two months later), but crime-fiction readers have at least one reason to do so. It seems that Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine has planned a special New Orleans-themed issue for September. In a note published in author Jan Burke’s blog, editor Janet Hutchings explains that “EQMM’s publisher, Dell Magazines, has donated all advertising for this special hurricane-recovery issue to organizations with rebuilding or relief efforts ongoing in the areas affected by Katrina.” Hutchings adds:

Headlining the issue, which bears a November publication date, is fiction celebrating New Orleans’ rich ethnic and cultural diversity. Short stories by crime-fiction pros John Edward Ames, O’Neil De Noux, Tony Dunbar, Tony Fennelly, Barbara Hambly, Greg Herren, Edward D. Hoch, Dick Lochte, William Dylan Powell, Sarah Shankman, and Julie Smith span more than a century and a half of the Crescent City’s history, from pre-Civil War days to the post-Katrina present. This is New Orleans depicted by New Orleanians: Ten of the issue’s authors, including poetry contributor James Sallis, hail from the beleaguered city. Several lost homes or property in the storm.

The work of other notable New Orleans writers is discussed in a book review column by Jon L. Breen, focusing exclusively on the region’s mystery writing.

There will come a day soon, I hope, when New Orleans doesn’t need financial assistance or other help from the rest of the world. But we aren’t at that point yet. EQMM undoubtedly has a profit motive here--if not related to single-issue sales, then certainly in terms of building long-term interest in the digest. However, that shouldn’t detract from the fact that this themed issue represents a small but important way to do something good for the city--and also please those of us who love crime fiction.

To order a copy of EQMM’s New Orleans edition, go to the magazine’s Web site.