Those Who Vanish
Patricia Grace King presents *Those Who Vanish*, winner of the 2026 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, in conversation with Guatemalan-American author and educator Anna Lapera. King’s debut collection explores the lives of Guatemalan citizens and North American expatriates shaped by decades of civil conflict. Its eight stories bring together peace workers, rebel fighters, exiles, missionaries, guerrillas, and others amid political violence, considering what survives when people lose their homes, loved ones, faith, and certainty. The collection includes a peace worker who shelters a rebel, an exile confronting the murders of her parents, and an elderly woman who witnesses apparitions of the Virgin Mary.
King grew up in North Carolina and has lived in Spain, Guatemala, and the United Kingdom, where she is now based. Her honors include the Miami University Novella Prize, the Arts & Letters Fiction Prize, and the Florida Review’s Leiby Prize. Her work has also appeared in Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, Narrative, and Nimrod. She is a former Carol Houck Smith Fellow at the University of Wisconsin and has received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and the British Library.
Lapera is the author of *Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice*, which won an International Latino Book Award, received recognition as a 2025 International Literacy Association Honor Book, and was selected by the New York Public Library among its Best of 2024. Her forthcoming 2028 novel, *Birdsong in the Long Night*, is a young-adult thriller set in 1978 Guatemala City.
When: October 22, 2026
Showtime: 7:00 p.m.
Tickets: Free admission, with first-come, first-served seating.
Venue: Politics and Prose at Union Market, 1324 4th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002
Format: Patricia Grace King in conversation with Anna Lapera.
Book: *Those Who Vanish* is available in hardcover for $24.00.
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. Requests made closer to the event will also be accommodated when possible.