Thanks for checking out Heart of Noir. My name’s Mike, and I’ll be your humble guide and editor. As film noir’s number one fan, I spent three years researching, curating, writing, and designing this site so that other fans around the world have a place to learn, share, and appreciate what I consider to be practically its own art form. 

When I’m not living in the shadows, I teach communications, mostly to grad students, at City University of New York and Johns Hopkins. In a roundabout way, my students motivated me to create Heart of Noir after I realized that none of them had even heard of film noir let alone could name one. This site is my attempt to help expose these extraordinary films to a new generation and prevent them from fading away.

You could also call me a corporate refugee. In an earlier life, I worked in corporate communications for several global consultancies and PR agencies, which had me advising senior management at lots of big, fancy corporations. I’ve also been writing fiction ever since I first picked up a pen (remember pens?). Packed with plenty of noir strangeness, my work has been published pseudonymously in obscure literary journals and anthologies like ThugLit, Pulp Modern, The Westchester Review, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and a few others you’ve never heard of. I studied English literature as an undergrad and later earned an MFA in Creative Writing. 

I love a ton of stuff besides noir too. For example, dogs. Also, old churches. Also, books, especially Victorian/Gothic novels, mysteries and thrillers, history and theology. I love traveling internationally. I love my big family. I love other kinds of film too, especially Tarkovsky, Bergman, and David Lynch. Born and raised in New England, I now live just outside of New York City and sometimes in Puerto Rico.

Nice meeting you. Enjoy the site.