Exclusive Cover Reveal of “Asmodeus” by Rita Indiana, Translated by Achy Obejas

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Asmodeus by Rita Indiana, translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas, which will be published September 1, 2026 by Graywolf Press. You can pre-order your copy here!

Asmodeus is a hallucinatory thriller about a failing demon’s search for a new host in post-dictatorship Santo Domingo.

Asmodeus, a millennia-old demon, has inhabited Rudy, a once-legendary Dominican rock star, for decades. But in 1992, the demon’s powers begin to fade. What follows is a desperate weeklong odyssey as Asmodeus ricochets through the bodies of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo’s underworld: from Guinea, a young metalhead plotting a warehouse heist, to Mireya, the daughter of a former torturer, to other souls caught in his chaotic orbit. Each possession reveals another layer of a city still reeling from the Balaguer dictatorship. And each new host engenders a surprising tenderness in the demon.

From acclaimed musical artist and author Rita Indiana, Asmodeus is written in urgent prose punctuated by original décimas, ten-line rhyming poems drawing from Latin American musical and oral tradition. Indiana weaves together Dominican heavy metal, black magic, and political trauma. Asmodeus is a supernatural noir, riotous thriller, and searing portrait of a nation grappling with its complicated past.

Here is the cover, designed by Luísa Dias: 

Rita Indiana: For the cover of the English translation of Asmodeo, I wanted something that resonated with the headbanger I once was—the 13-year-old kid who read Dante and The Possession of Joel Delaney by Ramona Stewart a hundred times. I knew I didn’t want a demon with a human face; Asmodeus has no body of his own, no fixed form. I love the old-print feel and the typography. It’s the perfect cover for the metal mixtape living inside the novel.

Luísa Dias: Designing the cover for Asmodeus was a project of pure visual intensity. I have long admired the books Graywolf Press publishes, so it was a joy to be introduced to Rita Indiana’s work through such a powerful vision. It turned out to be one of the most intensely creative projects I have worked on, as it asked for a mix of heavy metal, Dominican history, and psychedelic dread, paired with colors that “can cause seizures.” As a designer, that is a terrifying but incredibly exciting challenge, as I rarely get the chance to be that aggressive and honest with a cover design.

To meet that challenge, I looked at the author’s inspiration in the artist Skinner, whose abstract figures pushed me away from classic imagery. Since my process involves taking existing forms apart, I searched for a figure that could serve as a skeletal host. I found that presence in a 1915 woodcut by Huib Luns titled “Bellona.” Its raw, jagged energy felt like the perfect vessel to be possessed by a new kind of horror.

In my initial proposals, I experimented with vibrant colors against dark backgrounds, but the bright orange and yellow tones eventually hit the right sense of visual shock. For the final cover, this demon became a faceless flame with a single eye peeking through its mouth. I wanted the image to feel both ancient and explosive. All in all, I hope this cover refuses to leave the reader indifferent, and I am so grateful to Rita Indiana for letting me be a small part of her fierce universe!