Past Conferences

The first conference was held in the James Moore Theater of the Oakland Museum in 1996. The featured keynote address was titled Who was Chester Himes? Panel discussions included:

• The Black Mystery Novel: Writing, Reviewing and Stereotyping Images
• The Black Mystery Novel: A Scene From Life, a presentation on Real Crime Versus Literary Crime
• The film Cotton Comes to Harlem, was shown followed by a discussion.

During the past ten years FOCH has invited many well known writers to participate in the conference and to share their views on such conference themes as:

• Censorship, Crime and Civil Liberties: The Mystery Genre Post 9/11
• Women in Mystery
• Traditions, Trends, Transitions: The Black Mystery in the Millennium

The 2003 Conference

The 8th Annual Chester Himes Black Mystery Conference and Awards Program was held on May 16th and 17th 2003 at the James Moore Theater of the Oakland Museum.

This was a day and a half day conference featuring writing workshops on Friday afternoon. Later that day an author reception and book signing was scheduled at a local bookstore.

Panel discussions were held on Saturday focusing on the theme of Women in the Mystery Genre. A detailed presentation by Oakland Police Department’s crime scene investigator, Todd Weller, was also part of the Saturday line up.

The following authors attended the 8th Annual Conference:

New authors, Flemming, Johnson, and the Briscoes discussed the ups and downs of writing their first mystery.

Professor Crawford hosted a one-on-one dialogue with the foremother of the Black mystery, Eleanor Taylor Bland, author of the Marti MacAllister series. The text of the interview will be published later this year, published later this year in a French literary journal.

Bates, Bailey, and Mickelbury discussed their female protagonists and the inspirations for their strong Black female characters.

Greer, Tramble, Jackson and Phillips explained the importance of paying homage to the angst of Chester Himes in their own approach to story telling.

The 8th Annual conference once again inspired those who attended to sit down at their computers and struggle with creating the opening line to their first mystery and also introduced the conference attendees to an entirely new group of writers, stories and inside tips and techniques provided by the authors. 

The conferences allow readers, fans, and new members to meet, chat and learn from many of the established published writers. The authors also have an opportunity to introduce new characters, plots and ideas to an eager audience.

The 2004 Conference

The Ninth Annual Chester Himes Black Mystery Writers Conference and Awards Program was held on May 1, 2004 at the Oakland Museum. 

The Conference was a half day event focusing on the student writers who read their stories and discussed their writing experience. The students shared the tips they received from their writing mentors and FOCH authors Renay Jackson and Terris Grimes. 

Terris Grimes moderated an author's panel featuring Renay Jackson, Robert Greer, Gary Phillips and Sacramento children's author, Patricia Canterbury.  This panel focused on the nuts and bolts of writing, promoting and publishing in the mystery genre. 

A lively discussion emerged during the Q&A regarding the realities of promoting books by Black authors and the benefits and challenges of self-publishing.  Author Jackie Banks made a significant contribution to the discussion from her experiences as both an author and a publisher. 

This half day format was a departure from our traditional format but allowed the FOCH members to spend an afternoon with the authors in a brainstorming session on the future direction of FOCH and ideas for the Tenth Annual Conference.

Terris Grimes, FOCH Members,
Dorothy Carnegie and Jim Turner