.: e u r o p o l a r :. the European polar in the line of fire :. staff

..: s t a f f :..

Etienne Borgers webeurop@yahoo.fr

Born in 1941, in Brussels. Interested since ever by literature, movies... and jazz. Having written some crime and SF short stories, he joins the Belgium comics adventure as scenarist, mainly by helping Walthéry to launch his famous Natachaseries (he authored 3 volumes). From 1980, he'll travel trough Western Europe and in Asia for professionals reasons (unrelated to writing). From 1989, he'll spend ten years in Singapore, once again travelling through China and South-East Asia. In 1995-96, he starts and expands one of the first websites in English concerning noir literature and hard-boiled (Hard-Boiled Mysteries) through every of their facets, from novels to movies and comics –one of the first of its kind on the Internet, aimed at an American public. He takes the opportunity to support novice writers in their first publications. In 1998, his short critical history of the "Série Noire", written in English, is published in the anthology The Big Book of Noir (Carroll & Graf, New York). During 2000, he starts and develops a new website, in French : POLAR NOIR, aimed at a French-speaking public. Novels and essays reviews, interviews of authors, historical files and noir movies are the main topics. After living in New Zealand for three years, he comes back in Europe in the end of 2001 and settles in Belgium (in Walloon Brabant, a region near Brussels).

Matteo Bortolotti bortolottibologna@yahoo.fr

Matteo Bortolotti was born 1980 in Bologna. Young writer and screenplayer, in 2004 he was finalist for the Tedeschi/Mondadori prize. His first novel was selected by Sandrone Dazieri to be published on Colorado Noir/Mondadori, the Oscar-Winner director Gabriele Salvatores book series.
Secretary of Bologna Writers' Association presided by Carlo Lucarelli and Stefano Tassinari, he's also part of the pubblishing committee of screenplayers' prize Premio Solinas-Scrivere per il cinema.
He hosts radio programs and when night falls, he plays some blues with his guitar.
Sometimes he sleeps.
I hope so.
Visit his site at www.matteobortolotti.it.

Alfredo Colitto a.colitto@inwind.it

At the age of thirty, after leaving any hope of adapting to a nine-to-five job, Alfredo Colitto decided to follow his passion for travelling and began journeying around the world. He spent some years in Mexico, and now lives in Bologna, Italy, with his wife Ana Luz and Agata, his cat.
He published the novels Aritmia Letale (Addictions, 2003, under the alias of Alfredo Sereni), Bodhi Tree (Crisalide, 2005) and Café Nopal (Alacrán, 2005). Together with Giancarlo Narciso he edited Un oceano di mezzo (Nuovi Equilibri/Stampa Alternativa) a collection of short stories by Italian and Mexican writers, also published in Mexico. His short stories are included in several collections, among which: EnoKiller (Morganti Editori, 2005), Killers & Co. (Sonzogno, 2003) and Fez, Struzzi e Manganelli (Sonzogno, 2005). Alfredo Colitto is a member of ASB (Writers of Bologna Association) and of AIEP (Asociación Internacional Escritores de Policiacos ). He teaches creative writing in Bologna.
He is also a translator from English and Spanish, working for some of the biggest Italian publishing houses: Einaudi, Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer, Frassinelli, Sonzogno.
More news on his personal website: www.alfredo-colitto.com.

Sophie Colpaert scolpaert@gmail.com

Véronique Desnain vad@staffmail.ed.ac.uk

Véronique Desnain is a lecturer at Edinburgh University, Scotland. Her recent research on contemporary French crime writing has concentrated primarily on female writers, with articles in French Cultural Studies ('La femelle de l'espèce', June 2002), le // Supplément au Bulletin de l'ANEF (‘Les limites de la loi', no 33) and/ Modern and contemporary France/ (‘Elise et la vraie vie? Reality and fiction in Brigitte Aubert's /La Mort des neiges/', May 2004). She will also be giving a paper at the conference 'Sébastien Japrisot, a retrospective' at the University of Bristol in September 2005.

Àlex Martin Escribà alexescriba@latinmail.com

Àlex Martín Escribà (Barcelona, 1974) is. B.A. in roman and spanish litterature. He's writing a doctoral dissertation on catalonian crime fiction and teaches catalonian spanish at Salamanca's University. He published some articles on crime fictions and police stories in the following journals : La Gangsterera, Prótesis, and Brigada 21. His article "Jaume Fuster, una vida en negre" has been awarded by the "2004 Young Writers' Price" of the catalonian literary journal Serra d'Or. He's co-director of the future congress "Novela y cine negro: Aproximación a un género", to be held in Salamanca (May 2005). At present he's about to publish a study on catalonian crime stories.

Valerio Evangelisti eymerich@tin.it

Claire Gorrara gorrara@Cardiff.ac.uk

Claire Gorrara is a university lecturer at Cardif University, Wales. She is a specialist of World War 2 history and literature as well as the roman noir. Her writing include The Roman Noir in French Culture: Dark Fictions (2003) and she is currently working on a study of French film noir. A great fan of the roman noir, she discovered the French variation thanks to the work of Leo Malet, J-P Manchette, Didier Daeninckx, Thierry Jonquet, Daniel Pennac and others. Her love of crime fiction has recently taken a Swedish turn with the Kurt Wallander series by Hening Mankell.

Dominique Jeannerot d.jeannerod@qub.ac.uk

Giuseppina La Ciura gielleci@tiscali.it

Simona Mammano

Claude Mesplède cmesplede@free.fr

Former workman in aeronautical maintenance, he also worked as an important trade-unionist from 1957 to 1993 at Air France's industrial workshops in Orly and Toulouse. Crime stories' critic since 1981, this specialist of american black novel published numerous articles in Encyclopædia Universalis, Livres-Hebdo, Autrement, Encrage, Europe, Les Temps Modernes, 813, Tête en noir, Temps noir and Options and introduced polars on Amazon.fr during four years. He authored a dozen of must-read books, among them the famous Dictionnaire des littératures policières.

Elfriede Müller Elfi5@aol.com

Born in Mayence in 1957, Elfriede is a militant since her seventeen. She studied on Fribourg, spent some time in Paris from 1980 to 1986, and live in Berlin since 1993. Bookseller and historian from training, in charge of public art for the town of Berlin, she's interested in black novels since 1998. She co-authored Le Polar français, crime et histoire.

Corinne Naidet noirode@lanoirode.com

Born several years ago, a great one for bordeaux’s wines. Very serious studies in genetics. Now very serious molecular biology scientist in south of France. First meeting with detective novels : le club des cinq ( untranslatable !) and Alice from Caroline Quine. Now prefers Hammett, Chandler, Cook, Manchette... On evening, no knitting to look after an association la Noir’Rôde : a fanzine, radios broadcastings, articles for several newspapers and a festival in Cannes (not THE Festival of Cannes !). When I’ve some spending time, appreciate some belgian comics, Irish or Scotch whisky, italian “Brunello of Montalcino” and some spanish tapas. Sorry, no BMW nor Mercedes but some Goethe and Brecht’s books in my bookcases.

Sue Neale sue@nealedesign.freeserve.co.uk

With a name like S. Holmes (my maiden name) is it any surprise that I enjoyed crime fiction from an early age. Recently I have been studying contemporary French crime fiction (in the original) in more detail as well as exploring other non-American crime fiction in translation. I hope that my contributions for Europolar will encourage more readers to discover the delights of European crime fiction.

Alexander Ruoff a.ruoff@gmx.net

Born in 1967 in Blaubeuren, in the south of Germany, I'm historian and I work for Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. I now live in Berlin for a few years. I'm interested in black novels since 1998 and I co-authored the book Le polar français, crime et histoire with Elfriede Müller.

Mariano Sánchez Soler sanchezsoler@ono.com

Katrin Schielke schielke@bbi-genshagen.de

Kerstin Schoof K.Schoof@gmx.net

Raphaël Villatte raphaelvillatte@yahoo.fr

Born in 1976 in Paris. Academic, critic and translator. Co-director of the Festnoire of Mexico, chief editor of Arts Sombres. Lives in Mexico after having made advanced literature studies at Amiens, Toulouse and Limoges (France).

Javier Sánchez Zapatero javizapp@latinmail.com

Zeki zeki@telecable.es

Born in 1954 in Asturia, in the north of Spain, he lives in Belgium from six to twenty-six. Self-taught, he practices different jobs, most frequently as a worker, house painter, cooker-assistant and others similar occasional jobs. The birth of the internet permits him to share his passion for black novels and writing. Having noted the few space devoted to black novels in spanish medias, in january 2001 he launches and dedicates himself to the publication of an electronic spanish revue : La Gangsterera. Many complementary projects added themselves to this first initiative : the cultural association NOVELPOL which publish half-yearly La Gangsterera (paper format) ; the yearly attribution of the NOVELPOL price to the best novel published in spanish (all types blended) ; the management of the discussion list NOVELPOL on the net. During the preceding events and depending on current news, he works free-lance as a correspondent, critic, photograph and "publisher", going on at the same time his "main" work in the administration of public thoroughfare at Gijón.

Giovanni Zucca gizucca@katamail.com

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