James Chapelle Sallis (December 21, 1944 – January 27, 2026) was an American crime writer, poet, science fiction writer, and biographer who wrote a series of novels featuring the detective character Lew Griffin set in New Orleans, and the 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.
Sallis began writing science fiction for magazines in the late 1960s. Having sold several stories to Damon Knight for his Orbit series of anthologies, and a story to Michael Moorcock by the time he was in his mid-twenties, Sallis was then invited to go to London to help edit New Worlds just as it changed to its large format during its Michael Moorcock-directed New Wave SF phase. Sallis published his first sf story, "Kazoo", there in 1967 and was co-editor from April 1968 through February 1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant-garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work limited his appeal in the science fiction world, though he received some critical acclaim for A Few Last Words (collection, 1970). Sallis has been influenced by French New Novelists including Michel Butor and Robbe-Grillet. Camus’s L'Etranger is mentioned in each of Sallis's novels.[citation needed]
In all he published over 150 short works. Later short work (uncollected until Time's Hammers) appeared in the USA through the 1970s and 1980s.
Sallis worked as a creative writing teacher, respiratory therapist, musician, music teacher, screenwriter, periodical editor, book reviewer and translator, winning acclaim for his 1993 version of Raymond Queneau's Saint Glinglin.[citation needed] Trained as a respiratory therapist, Sallis worked as a neonatal respiratory therapist in various county hospitals in the US. He also played in an eclectic band called Three-Legged Dog.
In 2000, he appeared as himself in the UK Channel 4 project Asylum (2000)—a mix of both documentary and fiction, where in the future a group of people are looking back at the twentieth century after a virus has wiped out most of the culture—written and directed by Christopher Petit and Iain Sinclair. Sallis appears alongside Michael Moorcock and Ed Dorn. In 2012, Sallis played a small part as a detective in the film The Detective's Lover, directed by Travis Mills. Sallis taught writing classes at Otis College in Los Angeles and until September 2015 at Phoenix College in Arizona; he left his job rather than sign a state-mandated loyalty oath that he regarded as unconstitutional.
In Literary Hub, Lisa Levy considered his output significant and diverse and ranked him as perhaps alongside Don DeLillo (b. 1936) and Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937).
On noir Sallis argued it is an oppositional form, working not to reinforce American culture but to subvert it: "there is no moral order save which a man creates from himself. Like high art, these stories worked hard to unfold the lies society tells us and the lies we tell ourselves."
Personal life and death
His first marriage to painter June Rose ended in divorce; they had a son, Dylan, who predeceased James. In 1991 Sallis married Karyn Smith.[citation needed]
Sallis died after a long illness on January 27, 2026, at the age of 81.
Awards (selection)
Grand Prix de Littérature policière for 2012's The Killer is Dying
Bouchercon lifetime achievement award, 2007
Hammett Award for literary excellence in crime writing
Adaptations
Radio
Eye of the Cricket was adapted for BBC Radio 7 as part of the Readings to Die For series. It aired in 2007, 2008 and 2010. The main voice artist was Ray Shell.
In 2022, Sallis' short story "Blue Devils" was adapted into a short film of the same name, directed by James Frank and starring Christopher Salazar, Todd Essary, and Alec Franco. It was shown at the 2022 Austin Film Festival.
Lew Griffin is an African-American detective in New Orleans. Somewhat down on his luck he can be found in various local bars drinking whiskey and listening to jazz. Lew is a reader of Richard Wright, Melville, Poe, Borges and Chester Himes, and his favorite book is "L'Etranger," by Albert Camus.
Eye of the Cricket (New York: Walker & Co, 1997 & 2000. Harpenden: No Exit Press, 1998)
Bluebottle (New York: Walker & Co, 1999. Harpenden: No Exit Press, 1999)
The Long-Legged Fly/Moth Omnibus Edition (Harpenden: No Exit Press, 2000)
Ghost of a Flea (New York: Walker & Co, 2001 & 2000. Harpenden: No Exit Press, 2001)
John Turner series
Cypress Grove (New York: Walker & Co, 2003. Harpenden: No Exit Press, 2003)
Cripple Creek (New York: Walker & Co, 2006)
Salt River (New York: Walker & Co, 2007)
The Driver series
Drive (Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, 2005): Set mostly in Arizona and L.A., Drive is about a man who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night. A film version was made in 2011 by director Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling; Refn won the Best Director award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Driven (2012): Seven years after the events of Drive, Driver is now living in Phoenix under the name Paul West, and is engaged to be married. When two goons attack him and his fiancée, leaving her dead, Driver seeks vengeance.
Other novels
Renderings (Seattle, Washington: Black Heron Press, 1995)
Death Will Have Your Eyes (New York: St Martins Press, 1997. Harpenden: No Exit Press, 1997)
The Killer Is Dying (New York: Walker & Co, 2011)
Others of My Kind (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2013)
Willnot (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2016)
Sarah Jane (New York: Soho Press, 2019)
World's Edge: A Mosaic Novel (New York: Soho Press, 2026)
Backwater (Soho Crime, 2026, isbn 978-1641298605)
Short fiction
Collections
A Few Last Words (New York: Macmillan, 1970).
Limits of the Sensible World (Austin, Texas: Host Publications, 1994).
The Guitar Players: One Instrument and Its Masters in American Music (New York: William Morrow, 1982; Lincoln, Nebraska, and London: Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press, 1994, rev. ed.).
Jazz Guitars: An Anthology (New York: William Morrow, 1984), edited by James Sallis.
The Guitar in Jazz (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), edited by James Sallis.
Translation work
Saint Glinglin (Dalkey Archive Press, 1993; trade paperback 2000) by Raymond Queneau.
My Tongue in Other Cheeks (Obscure Publications, 2003) — selected translations of poems from French, Spanish and Russian.
