Swimming to Chicago

Reeling from his mother's suicide, seventeen-year-old Alex Bainbridge retreats from the world around him, often finding solace on a secluded island behind his house. As an Armenian-American living in a small Southern town, Alex struggles to fit in. His close friendship with the outspoken Jillian Dambro is his only saving grace, until he meets and falls in love with Robby LaMont—an introverted new student at school. As the year unfolds and the lives of the adults around them unravel, the three teens form an unbreakable bond, vowing to do anything to stay together—even if it means leaving everything behind.

David-Matthew Barnes describes himself as "a playwright, poet, novelist, filmmaker, actor, dancer, cheerleader, choreographer, director, teacher, and former model...for life." He is the author of over forty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in eight countries. He wrote and directed the feature film Frozen Stars, which received worldwide distribution. His literary work has been featured in over one hundred publications. David-Matthew was the 2008 Emerging Writer in Residence at Penn State where he taught in the English program for one year. Today, he lives in Sacramento, California, where he serves as a director for the Lambda Players theater company and teaches college English classes.