Isabel Cañas

Isabel Canas is a Mexican American author of speculative and historical fiction who holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and has lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York before settling in the Pacific Northwest. She writes fiction shaped by her academic research and her Mexican American heritage. She debuted with The Hacienda (2022), a gothic horror novel set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, following a young widow who moves into a haunted rural estate; she followed it with Vampires of El Norte (2023), a horror-tinged historical romance set during the Mexican-American War, and The Possession of Alba Diaz (2025). She has also written young adult fiction, including The House of Gardenias.