Those Who Vanish

King refuses to let history remain abstract, revealing how political violence reverberates through families long after the moment of loss, shaping identity across lifetimes.

* Electric Literature *

Those Who Vanish is a beautiful book and it’s not surprising that it won the 2026 Drue Heinz Literature Prize for short fiction.

* Southern Review of Books *

The stories in Patricia Grace King’s ravishing Those Who Vanish chronicle the consequences of inhabiting spaces both physical and psychic where one doesn’t naturally belong. In stories ranging from conflict-ravaged Guatemala to the American Midwest and beyond, King’s unrelenting exploration of our need to survive while retaining our humanity propels these narratives into surprising and heart-breaking terrain. As one character poignantly asks of another, ‘The real question is, do you want to be found?’ Those Who Vanish doesn’t present us with easy answers but masterfully interrogates what it means to be lost and the often-blinding nature of self-discovery.

-- Quan Barry, author of The Unveiling and judge of the 2026 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

In Patricia Grace King’s linked stories, Guatemala and the ongoing impact of war puts the concerns of her characters in an environment that always has high or dangerous stakes. Yet King shows us that this is why a love affair, or a commitment to a cause is even more important. Stunning.

* Electric Literature *

Patricia Grace King’s collection is compelling for so many reasons.

* Compulsive Reader *

deeply compassionate and uncompromising in its portrayal of the devastation caused by decades of political violence

* New City Lit *

In the world of Those Who Vanish, every absence is present, every presence is anxiously charged, and every unspoken word hangs between characters as dangerous as a grenade. These are unsentimental stories of cultural collisions and the aftershocks of violent conflict, which Patricia Grace King infuses with a gentle and generous life force.

-- Christopher Castellani, author of Last Seen

Courageous and provocative, edgy and timeless, Those Who Vanish is a tapestry of stories that leave the reader entranced and aching with truths. Each character confronts, in dramatically different ways, the barriers of time, place, and circumstance while searching for love in a world fraught with violence and sorrow. The tales are finely crafted and deeply felt. Patricia Grace King’s prose is concise, rich, and transformative. It demands to be read.

-- Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, author of The Orchard

Those Who Vanish is a brilliant and strikingly assured debut. Each story is so vividly imagined and beautifully crafted that it offers the reader a whole world. Charting the experiences of Guatemalan citizens and North American expats under state violence, this varied and substantive collection asks us to consider what it means to believe, to seek safety, and to belong. Patricia Grace King is a powerful writer, and this book will remain in your mind for a long time.

-- Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want

Patricia Grace King’s astonishing stories explore characters who must locate themselves within the vast incomprehensible violence of nearly four decades of state terror in Guatemala. With clear-eyed compassion and intelligence, King plumbs the complexities of these lives shaped by violence: the fear and idealism, naiveté and exhaustion, the righteousness and questioning and faltering and courage. Those Who Vanish is a transporting, harrowing, exhilarating collection, a work of witness that surely grows out of deep and critical love.

-- Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of The Five Wo