Observed in Mexico and parts of the United States, El Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebratory holiday. Los Muertos is the first anthology of fiction relating to or inspired by this bicultural tradition. Each of the two dozen Mexican and Mexican American writers featured here has a unique affinity for the myriad ideas connected closely to the El Dia de Muertos-some in less obvious ways. The stories connect to the metaphors and connotations related to memorializing the dead, some reflecting on the ritualized and religious aspects of what has become a commercialized holiday and others reacting to such cultural appropriations.

In celebration and reconciliation, stories like Alessandra Narvaez Varela's, told from the point of view of a Dia de los Muertos wreath, and Marytza Rubio's, about a young woman trying to rewrite a young man's death through parallel dimensions, illustrate the ways Latino cultures process death. From Kirstin Valdez Quade's little girl struggling to accept her mother's abandonment to David Rice's character forgiving himself in remembrance of his daughter's namesake, each character fully embraces what it means to look death in the face and celebrate the losses of the departed. From solemn ofrendas and milagros to everyday acts far removed from any trace of pan de muerto or papel picado, these diverse stories call us to appreciate the holiday's broader cultural significance.

Writers include Ana Gloria Alvarez Pedrajo, Rosa Beltran, Ana Garcia Bergua, Ana Castillo, Lucha Corpi, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Fernando A. Flores, Elizabeth Gonzalez James, Diana Lopez, Lorraine M. Lopez, Alberto Reyes Morgan, Manuel Munoz, Alessandra Narvaez-Varela, Guadalupe Nettel, Daniel A. Olivas, Pedro Angel Palou, Rene S Perez II, Kirstin Valdez Quade, David Rice, Alberto Rios, Ito Romo, Marytza K. Rubio, Socorro Venegas, and Desiree Zamorano.