Eric Barnes

Barnes has written the novel Above the Ether (Arcade Publishing, June 2019, ISBN 978-1628729986). Booklist said of the novel, “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.”

Reviews of Shimmer have said, "Case’s slow but accelerating downward spiral drives the narrative.... The corporate intrigue should hook anyone fascinated by the collapse of Wall Street and the crimes of Bernie Madoff." Another reviewer said, "I haven’t been able to get the people in the book out of my head.... Beautifully written, quiet and intense, Shimmer was absolutely riveting." Another reviewer said of Shimmer, "The book moves at a breathtaking pace, but I was purposely slowing my reading to enjoy both the writing and the structure of the book. Shimmer is beautiful in the way that a collapsing building is; more beautiful, because throughout it you can cling to the hope that the building will somehow put itself back together."

Barnes is the CEO of The Daily Memphian, an online news source in Memphis started in September 2018. Barnes is also the publisher of The Daily News (Memphis), as well as The West Tennessee News, The Nashville Ledger, The Knoxville Ledger, and The Hamilton County Herald.

He has also written the novel Something Pretty, Something Beautiful (Outpost19 June 2013, ISBN 978-1937402525). Benjamin Whitmer wrote of the book, "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."

Barnes' short story "Something Pretty, Something Beautiful" was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories 2011, a series edited by Otto Penzler.

Barnes has written the novel Shimmer (Unbridled Books, July 2009, ISBN 1-932961-67-4). A book about CEO Robbie Case, whose high tech company is built on a lie, Shimmer follows Robbie as he attempts to unwind the lie he has created. The fictional company, Core Communications, is a provider of high end networking services to mainframe computers. Along with his partner and cousin, Robbie has created an elaborate system that supposedly allows mainframe computers to communicate at impossibly fast speeds. However, the system does not work. It is actually built on a technical and financial Ponzi scheme that will fail if the company ever stops expanding.

Eric Barnes (born February 28, 1968) is an American writer and publisher. He is the author of the novels Above the Ether, from Arcade Publishing, The City Where We Once Lived, from Arcade Publishing, Shimmer, from Unbridled Books and Something Pretty, Something Beautiful, from Outpost19, as well as the author of numerous short stories, including stories published in The Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, The Northwest Review, Raritan and other publishers of short literary fiction.