Venessa V. Kelley

Author/Illustrator
Venessa Vida Kelley has spent a lifetime walking the line between competing labels: Puerto Rican and Sicilian. Latina and white. Washingtonian and New Yorker. Author and illustrator. Lived experiences inspire her daily to explore the shifting border between identities and cultures in her written work, illustrations, and current graphic novel in progress, Manu.
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A lifelong fangirl of comics, animation, and film, Venessa’s transition to graphic novelist was inevitable. Her ongoing education in literature and film has helped her cultivate a cinematic style of writing and drawing that grants accessibility and reach to marginalized stories.

Venessa lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two sons, and can often be found tinkering away on illustrations in her studio. Her works have appeared in Bella Grace Magazine, Discovery Girls Magazine, Bricolage Magazine, and Buzzfeed.
“I can't believe Venessa Kelley exists. Here is an artist who is not only extraordinarily talented, but she can write too? We are so lucky to be around at the same time as her. WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON may be a debut, but it reads like someone at the top of their game. Lush prose, diverse characters, and a love story to swoon over? This book has got it all. Venessa Kelley is a dynamic writer who understands that little details matter just as much as the narrative itself. A feast for the senses!” —TJ Klune, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea
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★ Kelley debuts with a captivating and perfectly balanced blend of history, fantasy, and good old-fashioned carnival magic... The setting is transporting and the romance is heartrending. It’s a triumph. —Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ Kelley’s debut might draw comparisons to Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, but this powerfully queer story will stand tall in its own right on any shelf. —Library Journal, starred review
WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON

USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

​The Shape of Water meets The Greatest Showman in this beautifully illustrated queer historical cozy fantasy, as a young Puerto Rican immigrant goes through a journey of love and self-discovery after capturing a merman for a Coney Island sideshow act in turn-of-the 20th century New York.

“Venessa gives life to the most unexpected things. I have a strong, strong feeling that this is the start of something special.” —TJ KLUNE, New York Times Bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea

Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric side-show proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon. 

The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own. 

A cage is no place for a merman to survive. Though releasing Río means betraying his new family, bankrupting their home, and losing his soulmate forever, Benny must look within for the courage to do what’s right, and find a love strong enough to free them both. 

"When the Tides Held the Moon is a beautifully illustrated novel with artwork throughout by Venessa Vida Kelley, known for her stunning romance and fantasy art. This novel includes two different full-color endpapers for front and back, fully-designed chapter headers, and 27 pieces of detailed illustrations throughout, using beautiful two-color, aqua blue and black inks.
“Kelley’s writing lands like music, infusing early 20th century Coney Island with palpable magic. I’m head over heels for Benny, Río, their unforgettable found family, and this love song of a book.” —Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling & award-winning author
“Venessa Vida Kelley's debut novel proves she can achieve the same effortless luminosity with words as with her artwork, creating a page-turning story which brings 1911 New York and a vivid found family of characters equally to life. This is an achingly fantastical and painfully romantic book; it plunged me deep and took my breath away!” —Freya Marske, internationally bestselling author and New York Times Editors' Choice Pick for A Marvelous Light and A Restless Truth
“Her prose is as beautiful as her art; her understanding of history and character, deep as the ocean. . . . Save some talent for the rest of us!” —Sarah Rees Brennan, USA Today bestselling author of Long Live Evil
MANU FACES THE MUSIC
Manuela is at the height of a lucrative music career when a loved one’s death unearths a family secret – that she is the last in a line of powerful mediums capable of channeling vast spiritual energy.

Told she must reawaken her dormant powers to meet a dark threat to the urban community she left behind, Manu is instantly forced out of her high-class solitary lifestyle, pulled by destiny into the center of a rash of mysterious crimes.

​With the help of her brilliant cousin Ivan, the insufferably righteous Delia, and the Spiritual Realm, she must wield her extraordinary abilities in defense of New York City’s most vulnerable or lose everything she holds dear.

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