David-Matthew Barnes is the award-winning author of the novels Mesmerized, Accidents Never Happen, Swimming to Chicago, Ambrosia, The Jetsetters, and Wonderland. He wrote and directed the coming-of-age film Frozen Stars, which received worldwide distribution. He is the author of over forty. Barnes is the national winner of the Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Award. In addition, he's received the Carrie McCray Literary Award, the Slam Boston Award for Best Play, and earned double awards for poetry and playwriting in the World AIDS Day Writing Contest. Barnes earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Barnes is on the faculty of the Spalding University brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program where he mentors students