Press Kit & Praise

“This dreamy dark fantasy focuses on unraveling artistic ecstasy and obsession. After being introduced to a Hazel Whitby quilt as a child, Xavier Wentworth develops a fascination with the spectacle of the quilts that sparks a lifelong obsession. This obsession takes him to Shimmer, Md., an isolated town that seems to exist outside of time, to work on his master’s thesis on the generations of black artists hailing from Shimmer. He soon suspects that many of these artists, especially queer ones, have been inspired by the spirit of a nearby marsh. Xavier’s story winds back on itself and trickles revelations piece by piece until the abrupt, upsetting, entirely appropriate ending. Told through chapters that include the perspectives of several of Shimmer’s residents, this lushly written fantasy raises many questions about the nature of art and its toll on artists and answers few of them. Readers prepared to be disturbed and unsettled will find this novel gripping and immersive” — Publisher’s Weekly

“Craig Laurance Gidney loves words … sensually, sexually,omnivorously. He streams out floods of them in his stories so that you, too, can taste their deliciousness. He wields them with abandon and precision to create little worlds that rise off the page and engulf you in snow globes of sparkling beauty and perceptiveness.” — The Fix

“Gidney’s storytelling abilities, complemented by his deftness with words and strong writing skills, result in an outstanding contribution to the young adult genre. The believably realized characters, strong description, and relevant knowledge of the adolescent experience, when combined with his willingness to take on the hard controversial issues facing today’s youths marks him as an author to watch. Undoubtedly his future work will be even more rewarding for readers.”–Lambda Literary Review

“Sea, Swallow Me is a wonderfully original and eventful collection, whose stories range fromthe supernatural to the historical to the right-now moment. Craig Gidney combines an exceptional gift for prose poetry–often as dark and steely as it is beautiful–with an unerring sense of the preposterous and the horrifying. (But add to that also occasional hilarity that should make a stone laugh aloud.) He breaks rules and remakes them, as many talented writers will, and is undaunted by the murks of society or psyche. Though inevitably (and rightly) he brings to his work the voices of Black and Gay Experience, what speaks most strongly throughout is the Human Experience–yes, even when confronted by a god of the sea. Here are elements of the young Ray Bradbury, of John Steinbeck, of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin and Angela Carter. But most of all it is the uniqueness of Gidney’s own take on life, clad in vivid, cunning and, in places, Dionysian language, that make this a must-read (and read again) collection. With new writers producing work of this caliber, the future of books looks bright.”–Tanith Lee, World Fantasy Award winner