A faceless man stalks a woman’s nightmares in Hollywood. A Kanontsistóntie is summoned to seek revenge in a monastery. A move from the Projects to Manhattan leads to ominous shadows closing in. Two sisters discover a secret room in their farm, unearthing a sinister power. When Other People Saw Us, They Saw the Dead is an anthology of dark, unsettling writing from some of the most exciting contemporary BIPOC writers. Blending Gothic, horror, folklore, fantasy and fairy-tale, these eerie short stories will disturb, move and humour you. Death is ever-present in the pages of They Saw the Dead, blending with notions of home, memory, grief and belonging, as well as gentrification, white supremacy and colonisation. Edited by Lauren T. Davila, They Saw the Dead explores what it is to be truly haunted.
Authors
C.M. LEYVA is a speculative fiction author and registered nurse who enjoys writing character-driven fiction about messy, anti-heroes. Her passion for science and medicine is often seen in her stories while exploring the what-if’s around them. When she’s not working on her next manuscript or short story, you can find her attempting home improvement projects, losing herself in a good book, or enjoying a nice glass of wine while working on a puzzle.
Anuja Varghese (she/her) is an award-winning writer of literary fiction, fantasy, and erotica/romance – and combinations of all three – where women of color get leading roles! Her debut novel A KISS OF CRIMSON ASH is the first book in a lush new romantasy trilogy inspired by medieval India, following a naïve young queen, a heartsick prince, a streetwise thief, and a courtesan with magic in her blood who join forces with an ancient goddess to challenge the empire’s most powerful men. Pitched as Dungeons & Dragons x Bollywood’s most epic love stories, AKOCA is forthcoming in early 2026 with Penguin Random House Canada, Orbit US, and Orbit UK. Anuja’s short story collection titled CHRYSALIS (House of Anansi, 2023), explores South Asian diaspora experience through a feminist, queer, speculative lens. In 2023, Chrysalis won the Writer’s Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. In 2024, it was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Fiction. Anuja’s work has also been featured in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Best Women’s Erotica Volume 6 (Cleis Press, 2020), When Other People Saw Us, They Saw the Dead, (Haunt Press, 2022), Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), and Devouring Tomorrow: Fiction from the Future of Food (Dundurn Press, 2025). Anuja is also a professional grant writer and the Fiction Editor with The Ex-Puritan Magazine. She holds a degree in English Literature from McGill University and a Creative Writing Certificate from the University of Toronto. Anuja lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her partner, two kids, and two cats.
Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of Sad Girls and Other Stories published by Solstice Literary Press. She lives in the northern Sierra Nevadas with her family in exile from her Los Angeles roots. A contributing editor for Hip Mama Magazine, she also writes a comic zine called "The Adventures of Sadgirl the Superheroine," illustrated by her daughter, Paloma. In 2015 she wrote and directed the play The Adventures of SadGirl: Superheroine. In 2014, she wrote, co-directed and co-produced the play "Before You Barefoot: A Dark Comedy of Revenge," in collaboration with Wretched Productions of Quincy, CA. She's also a DJ and radio host at Plumas Community Radio (www.KQNY919.org) where she hosts the alternative women's music show "Milkshake & Honey" and the literary arts show "Under the Covers." From 2013-2015 she directed the Plumas County "Listen to Your Mother" show, and she was a cast member in the 2012 San Francisco "Listen to Your Mother" show, where her essay was later featured on "Upworthy." She works as a reporter for Feather River Publishing. Her new short story collection Mary of the Chance Encounters is due out on Noctunicorn Press in May 2016.
