Skip to main content

Ann Dávila Cardinal

Biography

Ann Dávila Cardinal

Ann Dávila Cardinal is a Nuyorican author with eight published books. Her novels include the punk-rock thriller HEAR THE DEAD, THE STORYTELLER'S DEATH and WE NEED NO WINGS. Her story, “Her First Cruise Ship,” appears in the Latine anthology, SOMETHING FOLLOWED US HOME, coming from Primero Sueño in September 2026. She also writes for children and young adults and teaches in the University of San Francisco’s newest MFA in Writing program. She is a competitive powerlifter and part-time bookseller in Vermont.

Ann Dávila Cardinal

Books by Ann Dávila Cardinal

Hear the Dead
by Ann Dávila Cardinal - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

For more than 40 years, Elena Altieri has been hiding from the tragedies of her New York City punk rock youth. Tragedies that left her best friend, Sin, dead, and other women in their orbit missing. Now, the past is catching up with her in more ways than one. Not only is she hearing strange noises under the hum of her tinnitus, but the photographs she took of a recently deceased musician are going viral. When Elena begins to hear the screams of a woman ringing in her ears, she becomes convinced that she's somehow hearing Sin's murder. What she'll uncover not only will force her to reckon with her own fractured memories, but might prove that Sin and other innocent women from their youth were the victims of an unspeakable crime that only she can solve.

We Need No Wings
by Ann Dávila Cardinal - Fiction, Magical Realism, Women's Fiction

When Tere Sanchez’s husband dies unexpectedly, she finds herself completely broken. Taking a leave from the university where she works, Tere hopes that she can mourn her husband and get back on her feet, but instead she spends a year consumed by grief. Until the day she levitates. Suddenly, Tere's life is thrown into disarray, and the repeated incidents of levitation not only make her question her sanity, but also put her in danger. She decides she will do anything to stop them. So when she's reminded that her family is related to renowned levitating mystic Saint Teresa of Avila, she leaves the refuge of her home and travels to Spain, hoping to find answers. But Saints can be elusive, and not all answers are easily found.

The Storyteller's Death
by Ann Dávila Cardinal - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Magical Realism, Mystery, Women's Fiction

Isla Larsen Sanchez's life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage. When Isla turns 18, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family's cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her. At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can't solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.