John Gilmore

Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the quintessential L.A. noir writer," John Gilmore has been acclaimed internationally for his hard-boiled true crime books, his Hollywood memoirs and his biting, literary fiction. He is considered one of today’s most controversial American authors, with a following that spans the globe from Tokyo, Paris and London, to his native Hollywood where he was friends with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. He traveled the road to fame in many guises before turning to writing: kid magician, painter, poet, actor in films, TV, and the New York stage, then screen-writer, B-movie director into a “bang ‘em out alive,” nine-day novelist. “Few like to look back at how they kept the pot boiling,” Gilmore says. “For me it was an education—a turning point from frantic to be a movie star, to just letting the dog out of the cage.” After heading the writing program at Antioch’s west coast university, Gilmore traveled and lectured extensively while creating an indelible mark in crime literature with Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia, described by Colin Wilson as “The best book on the Black Dahlia—in fact, the only readable book.” After years of “being on the road,” as he puts it, three times married, three times divorced and now single, he resides in the Hollywood Hills, expanding his body of work with a “lengthy, peculiar” novel, plus another unusual exploration into true-crime.