Congratulations to Craig Rodgers, whose novel Drift, published in 2023 under our Death of Print imprint, has won the 2026 Dactyl Award. Drift has never sold a ton of copies but has always been my favorite of Craig’s books. I’m very happy for Craig, a writer who deserves more attention, more awards, more readers. Read more about the award at the Dactyl Review.

Praise for Drift:

“Drift captures the tedious terror-and terrifying tedium-of contemporary life like nothing I've seen. Craig Rodgers performs the neatest of tricks, sending European-style ennui (think Sartre and Camus) on a thrill ride through a uniquely American hell.”

—Jennifer Wortman, author of This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love.

“With Drift, Craig Rodgers cements himself as a writer of considerable talent and limitless creative ambition. Following the exploits of a self-described piece of human spam, the novel trawls the liminal spaces and empty corridors of the often crappy and occasionally edifying experience of being alive in America. Rodgers's prose is spare, comedic, and deployed with a craftsman's attention to detail. Paced perfectly, Drift is the literary page-turner of the year.”

—Kyle Seibel, author of Hey You Assholes

“Drift is a potent literary moonshine that distills the existential milieu of McCarthy and the post-modern dysphoria of Bachman.”

—Alan ten-Hoeve, author of Notes from a Wood-Paneled Basement

“Drift by Craig Rodgers reads in the author's signature style -the familiar charm of characters from another time somehow thrust into a world they don't belong to, an initially-pleasant vintage dancing toward something faintly macabre. In this case, it is Charlie, a Bible salesman who, in the slow process of losing himself, embarks on a darkly-tinged trip both literally and through his own consciousness. Bleak, twisting, and satisfying, Rodgers seamlessly curates the details of each moment, weaving them together into a knot you'll want to follow to the end.”

—Tiffany M. Storrs, Editor in chief, Roi Fainèant Press

“In Drift, the prose escalates with a relentless force, each step drawing you away from the grounded world you thought you were witnessing. Narration is as unyielding as steel, thrusting you into a realm where the boundaries between reality and illusion blur and shift like mirages on the horizon. Craig's narration is a force of nature, plunging you headlong into a world where the divine and the profane are locked in a dance of mundanity. The language is crisp, dragging you by the shirt collar through the purgatorial landscape of the soul.”

—Jake Blackwood, cyberwriter

“Craig Rodgers writes with unhinged force. This book, these characters are here for all the honest world to feel. It's blood and snot, it's a lonely bathroom light. No joke, Drift is one to cherish. Let it stick to the ribs. Take the ride.”

—Adam Van Winkle, author of Dylan Quick is a Dairy Queen Don Quixote and EIC of Cowboy Jamboree Press

“A rare gift. Craig Rodgers is a master of mood and style. Each chapter resonates, stays with you like a velvet ghost.”

—Autumn Christian, author of Girl Like a Bomb