Welcome friends! Today, I am hosting the cover reveal for We Deserve to Exist, an upcoming anthology by Inked in Gray. Let’s read together about the stories in the book and the authors!
We Deserve to Exist
Anthology collection of science fiction, fantasy, and horror
Publication Date: March 13, 2023
The world is not kind. It never was. Fear, jealousy, and anger fuel the actions of those who wish to assert their power and eliminate those they deem unworthy. There will come a time of reclamation—whether by force or by empathy—when those tides shift, a balance reborn. It must start somewhere. The reclamation of self, of culture, of heritage, and of our world—starts within. No longer will those around us decide if we deserve to exist.
Content warnings for violence, death, physical abuse, and references to rape (not described), alcoholism, drug use.
About the Contributing Stories & Authors
“What Remains” by Allison Baggott-Rowe is a story about finding purpose and courage in a world that feels judgmental and unforgiving.
Allison Baggott-Rowe (she/her) began writing as a teenager, winning Ohio’s “Power of the Pen” twice and advancing to the state level as a finalist both years. Her piece “Wounded Birds” was published by Scars literary magazine entitled Down in the Dirt. She is also a Swarthmore Book Award recipient and a contributor to several literary journals including The Chatterbox, The Goldfish, and Oberlin College’s The Grape. Her written works can be found on her website. Currently, Allison is a student at Harvard University obtaining her M.A. in Creative Writing and Literature and is in the process of self-publishing a collection of poetry and short stories. In 2018, Allison delivered a TEDx talk about redefining one’s life in the face of adversity entitled, “A Fall Does Not Define You, But How You Rise Will Redefine You.”
You can also find Allison On Twitter, LinkedIn, their personal and writing Instagram accounts.
“Our Lady of Silence” by Christina Ladd has written a powerful story about a character coping with hyperacusis.
Christina Ladd (she/her) is a writer, reviewer, and librarian who lives in Boston. She will eventually die crushed under a pile of books, but until then she survives on a worrisome amount of tea and pizza. You can find more of her work in Vastarien, A Coup of Owls, Strange Horizons and more, or on Twitter.
“People Like Us” by Jennifer Lee Rossman takes place in a monochrome world where everyone who does not conform to the vague ideals of the beings in charge has been eliminated. It is a story about standing up to the status quo, self acceptance, and gender euphoria. And also Twinkies.
Jennifer Lee Rossman (she/they) is a queer, disabled, and autistic author and editor from Binghamton, New York. They are a girl the same way Y is a vowel—sometimes, but not really. Follow them on Twitter and find more of their work on their website.
“A Dawn Less Dark” by Kevin Mack is a wartime tale about overcoming grief and loss.
Kevin Mack is a disabled combat veteran who spent a decade flying rescue helicopters in the US Air Force. When not writing, he can be found hiking the American Southwest with his family. Find Kevin on Twitter.
“Hunahpu” by Claudia Recinos is a story dedicated to the Mayan god. They Mayan people have survived and continue to face discrimination. But they are still here, and so are their stories.
Claudia’s work has appeared in Fun 4 Kids in Buffalo and Touch: The Journal of Healing. My YA verse novel, To Be Maya, is scheduled for publication December 2022 by West 44 Books. Claudia is a first generation Guatemalan American. When not writing, she can be found on a trapeze. For more information, please visit their website. You may also find them on Instagram, and Twitter.
“An Apology to Light” by Emmie Christie follows a women through her planet’s deadly crystal tunnels to escape an abusive relationship while overcoming her own self-destructive thoughts.
Emmie Christie’s (she/her) work tends to hover around the topics of feminism, mental health, cats, and the speculative such as unicorns and affordable healthcare. She has been published in Flash Fiction Online and in Three-Lobed Burning Eye and she graduated from the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2013. She also enjoys narrating audiobooks for Audible. You can find her on her website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
“The Last Flame” by Marisca Pichette is a speculative piece that gives trauma a physical form that cannot be ignored or overlooked.
Marisca Pichette is a bisexual author of speculative fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Her work has been published and is forthcoming in PseudoPod, Strange Horizons, Daily Science Fiction, Fireside, Uncharted, and PodCastle, among others. A lover of moss and monsters, she lives in Western Massachusetts. You can find her on her website, Twitter, and Instagram.
“No Monster of Frankenstein” by Tessa Hastjarjanto is a unique story about taking back narratives from those who do not deserve to tell them.
Tessa is a disabled biracial author from the Netherlands. They have published short stories in the Dutch comic con anthology ‘Heroes’ and in Skullgate Media’s ‘Winter Wonders’ anthology, in addition to their self-published work. You can find Tessa on Twitter and Instagram.
“Bone Mother” by Daphne Fama is a revenge story about escaping an abusive ex and struggling to find a new normal and an accepting community.
Daphne Fama is a queer Filipina woman who traded the swamps of Florida for the mountains of South Korea. When she’s not hiking the ranges with her dog she’s searching out haunted places. She can be found on Twitter.
“Hell of a Mind, Heaven of a Mind” by Rashmi Agrawal is a story about the eccentricities of poverty and one man’s fight to save community.
Rashmi Agrawal has been published in nearly a dozen anthologies. She dreams of seeing her name on a novel’s spine and is working on her first novel, a psychological thriller. She lives in India and sits by a big window to write. When she’s not writing, she vexes her daughter in motherly ways. She tweets on Twitter and silently stalks her friends on Facebook here.
“Sleep Tight” by Tyler Wittkofsky personifies mental illness through a story about accepting who we are means accepting our darkness too.
Tyler Wittkofsky is an award-winning marketing and communications professional, multi-genre author, podcaster, blogger, and mental health advocate from the southern coast of North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Grace, and dogs, Dutch and Belle. He started writing poetry to cope with his mental illnesses and eventually published Coffee, Alcohol, and Heartbreak. His first novel, (Not) Alone, was based on true events surrounding the struggles of living with mental illness. The Seeds of Love: Sunflower Kisses Book One was his debut romance novel centered on a mentally ill young man. You can find all of Tyler’s social media, book, and website links here.
“Whispered Navajo” by Bernardo Villela (he/him) is a tale of an all-too-possible dystopia future wherein certain Americans are made to be the enemy due not just to their race or other identities but politics too. The perseverance and survival instinct of Native Americans are on full display here as they live on but also fight for those the government now hunts.
Bernardo Villela has short fiction included in periodicals such as Coffin Bell Journal, The Dark Corner Zine, Constraint 280 and forthcoming in Rivet. He’s had stories included in anthologies such as 101 Proof Horror, A Monster Told Me Bedtime Stories, From the Yonder II, and Disturbed. He has had poetry published by Entropy, Zoetic Press, and Bluepepper and others. You can find Bernardo on his website, Twitter, and Instagram.
“The Four” by Akua Lezli Hope is a magical story about four young black females embracing their evolving power in a struggle to save another from abuse.
Akua Lezli Hope uses sound, words, fiber, glass, metal, and wire to create poems, patterns, stories, music, sculpture, adornments, and peace. She wrote her first speculative poems in the sixth grade and has been in print every year, except one, since 1974 with over 400 poems published. Her collections include Embouchure: Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (ArtFarm Press, 1995; Writer’s Digest book award winner), Them Gone (The Word Works, 2018), Otherwheres: Speculative Poetry (ArtFarm Press, 2020; the 2021 Elgin Award winner), and Stratospherics (a micro-chapbook of scifaiku available from the Quarantine Public Library). A Cave Canem fellow, her honors include the NEA, two NYFAs, a SFPA award, and multiple Rhysling and Pushcart Prize nominations, among many others. She has won Rattle’s Poets Respond twice and launched Speculative Sundays, an online speculative poetry reading series. You can find her website, Instagram, and Twitter.
“Depression in the Backseat” by Joris Filipp is an innovative personification of depression, a journey of reclaiming agency in the face of mental illness.
Joris Filipp works for a queer organization in Berlin, Germany. They are a teacher, coach and editor and have performed in spoken word events as well as given lectures on queer and postcolonial speculative fiction. In their writing, Joris explores some of the challenges of loss and neurodiversity.
Thank you so much for reading this post. Inked in Gray is a small agency of marginalized editors and creators building a platform to highlight previously-excluded authors and creators. Find Inked on Twitter, Facebook, and website. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Check out my anthology reviews here.
Cover image: Photo on Unsplash
Be First to Comment