Trouble is her business.

After all, “suffering is the crime of the century,” says Misty Berry, editor and publisher of Low Down’s Dirty Voice crime novels on the theme of voting. With proceeds going to nonprofits fighting for voting rights, Berry released her last of three volumes this spring.

A BookLife reviewer praised the new volume’s stories as “diverse,” “playful,” “haunting,” and “inspiring and inspiring.” As Berry and her co-writers take on the pressure of a democracy in crisis, we catch up to discuss her original inspiration, the power of crime fiction, and the new rage and creativity that drives the new collection.

Can you talk about the power of crime stories to reveal truths about a society?

Crime fiction asks us to delve deeper into the differences between who we are and who we are. Crime writers don’t want happy endings; We’re looking for answers, and the answers are often unpleasant. The next time we are tempted to ignore the bad deeds of the corrupt and act foolishly, we remember that it is possible to do the right thing even in a corrupt organization.

The title of this series came to you in a flash, didn’t it?

This is funny, because titles are usually the very last thing that comes to say that a title never comes; I just need to examine the finished manuscript for the PT phrase. But in the year I’ve been talking to my husband about how voting in 2017 is always about shining bright signs like libraries and hospitals, where we stick out our thumbs as opposed to selfish animal impulses. After the second election in my life where the popular vote was different from the Electoral College vote, I felt low. During the conversation, the phrase “low-down dirty sound” popped into my head. My lifetime of limited political awareness helped pave the way for this disenfranchisement—so what can I do to stop it? Well, I knew some really good crime writers, and I had this title, and I had enough tech skills to make sure that publishing an anthology was within my reach.

This anthology will be different in two ways. First, since writers should never work for free, they will be paid as much as I can afford. Second, 100% of the sale—everything that was going to come to me as a publisher—was donated to the cause: the 2018 amount benefited the ACLU, the 2020s went to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and this year it’s a Democratic document.

Do you remember what it felt like when the first stories came out?

Ok this is embarrassing but true. A few years ago I saw a diamond exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Walking from glittering case to case, I thought about breaking the glass and grabbing more diamonds because they were so wonderful and I wanted them! Well, I honestly felt like the stories of the first volume were coming. I felt rich. Not metaphorically rich, but physically and emotionally rich. Here I was, reading stories by writers at the top of their game, trying out new perspectives or structures or themes, and for a while it was mine and mine alone.

The series has published several debut authors who write memorable stories. Is it important to you? How did you find these new writers?

First credit goes to Catriona McPherson: “I’m sure I can contribute, but I know this new writer—want you to check her out?” If you know Ms. McPherson, you know she’s a quality person, so I said, “Hell yes,” and her new writer, Chris Calvin, gave a warm and sweet talk on the subject.

Catriona’s question planted a seed in my mind about new voices. So I reached out to friends from my MFA program—yes, I have an MFA, but I never let it get in the way of a good story!—for Part 1, and encouraged other writers I know to recommend it to a newbie. I. We have open submissions for volumes 2 and 3.

Honestly, I was a little embarrassed that every writer in Volume 1 was white and, as far as I knew, as straight and decent as I was. All great writers, but this was in support of voting rights, so when we start suppressing voices, I need to have people of color, LGBTQ+ writers, representing the community. That was up to me to fix. The second volume had better diversity, and volume 3 is by far the most diverse. If we want to live democratically in these times, we need to hear each other’s stories, listen, believe and communicate.

In the introduction to this third volume, note that this time around, the stories seem more edgy than before and some are now pushing the boundaries of the traditional crime story, adding to the speculative edge.

It was so much fun! Many stories are filled with anger and frustration. It makes me a little worried about our national mental health. But it makes for a powerful story! There’s a bit of a “biting the hand that eats you” theme, which I think reflects our general frustration with the political climate of dark money and our growing wealth disparity. I saw it in the story of Miguel Alfonso Ramos and Mrs. Soul and a few others. With Pat Canterbury’s soft, kind voice to narrate, it makes a great contrast to the gritty story based on real Sacramento history.

David Corbett and Travis Richardson write with a passion and fury that amazes me. Every congressman and senator who is obsessed with voting rights has read both stories and wondered, “Did I really come to DC to do this?” I feel him asking.

One of the hardest things about this collection is choosing between the traditionally told stories and the ones written in a new way—with different structures, perhaps following different rules than what you’ve learned from screenplays and traditional crime fiction.

How does it feel to be in three books? Any plans for a fourth?

I hope we can fix a lot of things in the 2022 election, because I’m not sure if I’ll be able to publish the fourth volume or join the Handmaids. It feels so awful.