2023 Discoveries longlisted India-Rose Bower’s thrilling and haunting We Call Them Witches is now out in paperback! To celebrate publication, India shares with us the writers on her bookshelves who have inspired her work.

If you want to hear more about We Call Them Witches, don’t miss out on this panel at Cheltenham Literature Festival this October with India-Rose, alongside fellow alumni Rukky Brume and Georgia Moorhouse, as they read from their debut work and share more about their journeys to publication.

Discoveries is now open for submissions until 11 January 2027.

Caitlin Starling

I first discovered Caitlin Starling on a slow day at work. Scrolling through the books available at the library I work at, I noticed a book called The Luminous Dead, about a caver completing a dangerous job with only an acerbic, suspicious voice in her helmet to guide her. I was hooked from the first chapter. Caitlin Starling writes queer, toxic, sweet, desperate, intelligent women so very well, and her genre-bending worlds provide more than just a backdrop. They’re the kind of worlds you find yourself falling into – even when you know you wouldn’t survive a second.

Carmen Maria Machado

I was already a fan of Carmen Maria Machado when In The Dream House came out, and I’d have read anything she wrote, but that particular book ended up feeling as though it was written for me. A strange lyrical piece somewhere between non-fiction and fiction, it’s a memoir of her relationship with a woman who was controlling and abusive, and the way homes can be so very complicated. It was one of those books that found me at just the right time, and as someone who doesn’t read a lot of non-fiction, it opened the door to a kind of narrative non-fiction I’d never valued properly before.

Alison Rumfitt

Alison Rumfitt is a ridiculously talented author who writes well-crafted, life-changing pieces of work. The topics she tackles in her writing are extremely difficult and complex, and she handles them with a level of skill I definitely envy. Tell Me I’m Worthless is a dark, life changing read that cuts to the rotting heart of British culture and values. I discovered her on a reading list of ‘books that disturbed me’, which obviously caught my eye, but this was one of the only books on that list that truly shook me. Cisgender people, especially those who benefit from other privileges like race or sexuality, should definitely read her books.

Cassandra Khaw

I first picked up Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth, and quickly followed that up with The Salt Grows Heavy. Reading their work shifted the way I write; the strange prismatic shifting of genres, the flawed, unpleasant characters you end up rooting for. To say they write dark fairytales seems like a gross understatement. They also work writing tabletop roleplaying games and video games, and I think you can see this in their writing. Every choice their characters make drags you further into the darkness. That’s the kind of skill that comes from writing games with multiple branching paths, and it makes Khaw’s work all the more exciting to read.

C.J. Leede

C.J. Leede makes me uneasy in the best way, and while Maeve Fly is one of my favourite books, I just finished Headlights and it did something that I’ve never seen a book do before. You’ll have to read it to find out what it is though. I’ve learned a lot about how to write a character who you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near in real life, but who you weirdly fall in love with. Why I ended up wanting the girl who idolises American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman to have a happy ending, I will never know, but I did and I think that’s proof of excellent writing.