Eric Barnes of is the author of the novels Above the Ether (Arcade Publishing 2019), The City Where We Once lived (Arcade Publishing 2018), Shimmer, (an IndieNext Pick from Unbridled Books), and Something Pretty, Something Beautiful (Outpost19). He has published more than 40 short stories in journals such as Prairie Schooner, The Literary Review and Best American Mystery Stories. www.ericbarnes.net
"An eerie, beautifully written, and profoundly humane book.” - Emily St. John Mandel, author of STATION ELEVEN, about THE CITY WHERE WE ONCE LIVED
Praise for ABOVE THE ETHER:
“Barnes’ spare and chilling prose flows from one horrific scene to another without, surprisingly, alienating his readers, perhaps because the heart of his narrative ultimately reveals an abiding faith in the power of human compassion. A first-rate apocalyptic page-turner.” - Booklist
“In twenty years—or less—people will have a hard time believing that this is a work of the imagination; that's how convincingly Barnes plays out the signs and omens of our times. That he conjures this dark forecast without ever naming a soul or the cities they live in does not make the story more otherworldly, but only more chillingly recognizable.” - Tim Johnston, NY Times bestselling author of THE CURRENT
“The world of Eric Barnes’ novel Above the Ether suffers destruction of Biblical proportions. Flood, fire, pestilence, famine — the rolling cataclysms have an Old Testament tenor and scope. Though the novel builds in intensity as the story lines interweave, it derives its power from the poetic quality of its language.” - Chapter 16
“Above the Ether depicts a dystopia more terrifying because of its proximity to our own, yet this novel is also saturated by hope. In this world, people can rise above their pasts, and humanity can endure change and hardship. Barnes is also just a terrific writer of both story and sentence.” - Elise Blackwell, author of THE LOWER QUARTER and HUNGER
Praise for the CITY WHERE WE ONCE LIVED:
“Barnes's new novel is a rare and truly original work: a hard-edged fable, tender and unflinching, in which a man's descent and renewal is mirrored by his city. An eerie, beautifully written, and profoundly humane book.” - Emily St. John Mandel, author of STATION ELEVEN
“Written in a gorgeously spare language that perfectly reflects the dystopic future this novel depicts, The City Where We Once Lived kept me enthralled throughout. At the core is a deep and admirable compassion for humanity.” - Chris Offutt, author of COUNTRY DARK
"A stunningly-written tale of loss and grief." - Lindsay Moran, former CIA operative and author of BLOWING MY COVER
"Spare and elegant, Eric Barnes shows us what it means to inhabit - a building, a city, a life. And also what it means to be inhabited - by memories, by ghosts, and maybe, just maybe, by hope." - Elise Blackwell, author of THE LOWER QUARTER
“An intensely envisioned work of dystopian realism and American desolation, beautifully drawn from the slow-motion apocalypse of everyday life.” - Christopher Brown, author of TROPIC OF KANSAS
"A controlled burn of a book, full of horror and sadness and, once the fire dies down, the beauty of new growth. In the tradition of J.G. Ballard and Margaret Atwood, Eric Barnes gives us a dying neighborhood of outcasts who save the world that has cast them out." - John Feffer, author of SPLINTERLANDS
“With deft prose and a discerning voice, The City Where We Once Lived is a taut examination of the archetypes and rituals that form the landscape of community.” - Courtney Miller Santo, author of THREE STORY HOUSE and THE ROOTS OF THE OLIVE TREE
"The voice is appealingly quiet, the atmosphere dreamlike, but the premise of poisoned ground, weather gone haywire, and a government that has thrown up its hands, is frighteningly real." - James Whorton, author of APPROXIMATELY HEAVEN, FRANKLAND and ANGELA SLOAN
"Eric Barnes' The City Where We Once Lived is a most original novel, surprising and fierce - a dazzling puzzle of grief and utopia, dystopia and hope." - Minna Zallman Proctor, author of LANDSLIDE
Praise for SOMETHING PRETTY, SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL:
"Elegantly constructed and lovingly, tenderly, savagely written... the most harrowing portrait of American boys careening into manhood that I've ever read.
And the truest." - Benjamin Whitmer
“[A] remarkable book. … This is a world where the pull of friendship is far stronger than the pull of family, where cars are freedom, stories are everything, and home is thick with ghosts.” – The Millions
Praise for SHIMMER:
"Case's slow but accelerating downward spiral drives the narrative...." -- Publisher's Weekly
"One is reminded in Barnes' language and locution of Don DeLillo's scalpel-sharp delineation of American corporate culture and paranoia, and of David Foster Wallace's penetration into the heart of the relationship between human consciousness and rapidly changing technologies." -- Fredric Koeppel, The Commercial Appeal
"Robbie is one of those engagingly conflicted heroes who comes along from time to time." -- Booklist
Barnes published "Something Pretty, Something Beautiful" in the Best American Mystery Stories 2011. Kirkus Reviews: "Eric Barnes shows teenagers wreaking havoc for no particular reason in his slow-moving "Something Pretty, Something Beautiful."
Barnes is also Publisher & CEO of The Daily Memphian, the largest newspaper in Memphis, as well as Publisher of The Memphis Daily News, The Nashville Ledger, The Knoxville Ledger, and The Hamilton County Herald, four papers that cover business, politics, the arts and more.
Since 2009, he has hosted Behind the Headlines, a news talk show on public television. He also hosts The Sidebar, a radio show and Podcast on WYXR. In the past, he was a reporter and editor in Connecticut and New York. Years ago he drove a forklift in Tacoma, Washington, and then Kenai, Alaska, worked construction on Puget Sound, and, many years ago, graduated from the MFA writing program at Columbia University.
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