An Out of Sight Festival*

 

This November, the first annual Elmore Leonard Literary Arts and Film Festival will be held in Detroit, the city where the author grew up. Featured events include the screening of the pilot episode for the FX network's Justified TV series, based on Leonard's character, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant); screenings for a short film competition; a short story contest for young writers aged 13-18; and a competition for screenwriters and filmmakers. Submissions for both the film and story competitions start this summer (July for films and August for stories), and must include Michigan or Detroit, depending upon the category, and be in the crime or mystery genre. For his part, Leonard has this to say about the festival:  "My only hope, as the annual festivals continue over the years, that someone doesn't finally say, 'Who's Elmore Leonard?'

(*A little disclaimer:  Decided not to offend anyone with the original title of this posting, "Freaky Deaky Festival"; although it's the title of a famous Leonard novel, it also has some rather explicit connotations, which the festival might not appreciate.)