What We Keep Hidden

From quiet introspection to the extremes of the human psyche, What We Keep Hidden excavates what lies beneath our everyday lives: the beauty and brutality, the visible and hidden, the light we chase and the darkness we carry.These twelve stories and three poems span literary fiction, sci-fi, thriller, and horror, exploring the full spectrum of human experience: coming-of-age and self-discovery, grief and loss, the hunger for revenge, the capacity for violence, the systems that exploit the vulnerable. Some stories emerge from lived experience, capturing moments of growth, connection, and internal struggle; others observe human behavior at its extremes -- immigrants navigating exploitation, ordinary people capable of murder, the invisible battles we fight within ourselves. With a particular focus on the social forces that shape us all, this collection probes the depths of identity, transformation, and survival across cultures and communities.What do we become when we can no longer keep it hidden? Alejandro Gabriel Leopardi is an English professor teaching literature and writing at Montgomery College in Maryland. His novel, Unraveling the Dark, released in February 2025 with the audiobook in 2026. His work has appeared in The Acentos Review, The Argyle Literary Magazine, Blood+Honey, Duck Head Journal, Academy of the Heart and Mind, and The Sligo Journal, as well as the Sci-Fi anthology Alien Aberrations. Alejandro is also a screenwriter and has had his screenplay, We, produced; it is available on several streaming services, including Apple TV and Amazon Prime.