When: Saturday, January 21st, 3 P.M.
Where: The Noir City Nightclub, Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
Cost: Suggested Donation: $10″advance tix available via www.noircity.com or www.brownpapertickets.com

Before film noir, there was lit noir.

And in homage to the pulpy literature that inspired a cinematic genre, Noir City and Litquake are conspiring to produce an afternoon of criminally enjoyable readings of works that went on to enjoy iconic film status.

Noirquake takes place at 3 p.m., Saturday, January 21 at the Palace of Fine Arts.

In keeping with last year’s wildly successful Litquake opening night tribute to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and other Bay Area revolutionary writings, local writers”working with accused “Czar of Noir” Eddie Muller”have paired up with works with whom they share deep, perhaps even baffling affinities. For example, at the Litquake opener, Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) read from Gertrude Stein. For this event he will read from Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, which will be followed by a screening of the corresponding clip from the classic Hitchcock film of the same name.

Other pairings include 
· Michelle Tea smiling through Jim Thompson’s The Grifters 
·  Former bank robber turned memoirist Joe Loya reading from W.R. Burnette’s The Asphalt Jungle“not so ironically, fiction about a ring of jewel thieves 
·  Joyce Maynard breathing life into Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely 
·  Robert Mailer Anderson opening the sash on Cornell Woolrich’s Rear Window
·  Los Angeles crime writer Gary Phillips exposing the offer to Kiss Me Deadly from Mickey Spillane 
·  Former SF private eye Joe Gores takes flight with Dashiell Hammett’s revered Maltese Falcon 
·  Barry Gifford knocking at the door with James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice
· Peter Plate suffering from the Miami Blues thanks to Charles Willeford 
·  And finally, don’t be surprised if a special guest finds him or herself In a Lonely Place, courtesy of Dorothy B. Hughes

Peter Maravelis”editor of the recent anthology San Francisco Noir“will emcee the event, a co-production between Noir City and Litquake

The Noir City Film Festival runs Jan. 13-26, 2006 at the Palace of Fine Arts and Balboa Theater. Complete schedule information is available at www.noircity.com

About Noir City
The Film Noir Foundation is a non-profit public benefit corporation created as an educational resource regarding the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of film noir as an original American cinematic movement. It is the mission of the Foundation to find and preserve films in danger of being lost or irreparably damaged, and to ensure that high quality prints of these classic films remain in circulation for theatrical exhibition to future generations. January 13-26. Palace of Fine Arts and Balboa Theater. www.noircity.com