An object becomes a woman, and the world refuses to adjust its gaze.
In 1934, inside Spokane’s glittering Crescent Department Store, a mannequin awakens to find herself suddenly—impossibly—alive. What begins with a sneeze becomes a darkly enchanting journey through a world that sees her only as an object of beauty. As she learns to move, to speak, to feel, she must also navigate the rigid expectations of womanhood in an era obsessed with perfection and display.
Blending historical detail with a touch of the surreal, Carla Crujido transforms a department‑store icon into a haunting figure of longing and self‑discovery. A story of awakening—both tender and unsettling—The Mannequin invites readers to consider what it means to be made, remade, and finally recognized.
The MANNEQUIN
The strange Beautiful
KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF 2024
From debut fiction writer Carla Crujido comes a delicately intertwined, fairytale-inspired collection of short stories.
Part vivid historical drama, part melancholy fever dream, The Strange Beautiful centers on Mount Vernon Apartments in Spokane, Washington, offering a glimpse into the lives of ten tenants over a period of one hundred years.
In the opening story, "The Songbird," we meet the building's caretaker, a WWI veteran trying to rebuild his life amidst the Spanish flu pandemic. In "The Telephone," a 21st-century poet's longing for a bygone era nurtures a friendship that transcends time. A 1930s department store mannequin navigates the challenges of womanhood in the surreal, darkly humorous tale, "The Mannequin." And in "The Suitcase," an exhausted woman scrambles to tidy up her boyfriend's unprocessed emotions, which have materialized inside boxes all over the apartment.
As we witness the quiet but fraught moments of the tenants' everyday lives, these uncanny narratives create a world that is at once familiar and fantastic. A striking portrait of a city not often depicted in literature, The Strange Beautiful leads us through the streets of Spokane and the similarly evolving internal landscapes of these ten characters. Crujido's masterful storytelling shows us how a single place can hold a myriad of histories, how our lives are interconnected with strangers, and how our collective tales are forever repeating.
Available from Chin Music or Auntie’s
Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on being in the world
Editors Darien Hsu Gee and Carla Crujido bring together 131 personal narratives written by established and emerging women of color. In 300 words or less, these true stories speak to otherness, familial relationships, impossible beauty standards, ancestral heritage, coming of age, and owning one's place in the world. This singular collection, inspired by Lucille Clifton's luminous poem, won't you celebrate with me, sings to the beauty of how these women live and thrive in the world, and how they make their lives their own. 2023 IPPY Award winner (Silver)for Adult Multicultural Nonfiction.
Loralee Abercrombie ⋅ Karina L. Agbisit ⋅ María Alejandra Barrios ⋅ Hala Alyan ⋅ Anastacia-Renee ⋅ Julie Hakim Azzam ⋅ Selina Li Bi Maroula Blades ⋅ Kimberly Blaeser ⋅ ʻIolani Brosio ⋅ Vivian Mary Carroll ⋅ Samantha Chagollan ⋅ Victoria Cho ⋅ Fela Cortés ⋅ Carla Crujido ⋅ Margarita Cruz ⋅ Ella deCastro Baron Camille Dungy ⋅ Tina Ehsanipour ⋅ Dara Yen Elerath ⋅ Safia Elhillo ⋅ Theresa Falk ⋅ Alison Feuerwerker ⋅ Fatimah Finney ⋅ CMarie Fuhrman Helena Garcia ⋅ Isabel Garcia-Gonzales Gabrielle Ghaderi ⋅ Victoria K. Gonzales Michelle Guerrero Henry ⋅ Samina Hadi-Tabassum Stephanie Han ⋅ Ida Soon-Ok Hart ⋅ Sadia Hassan Lisa Lee Herrick ⋅ Chelsea Tayrien Hicks Christine Hsu ⋅ Kaitlyn Hsu ⋅ Rogelia Lily Ibarra ⋅ Mee Ok Icaro ⋅ Amal Iman ⋅ Toni Jensen Alyssa Jocson Porter ⋅ Anita Johnson ⋅ Tayari Jones ⋅ Leena Jun ⋅ Kristiana Kahakauwila Mohja Kahf ⋅ Blaise Allysen Kearsley ⋅ Lena Khalaf Tuffaha ⋅ Sabina Khan-Ibarra ⋅ Saheli Khastagir ⋅ Amanda Mei Kim ⋅ Eugenia Kim ⋅ Iris (Yi Youn) Kim ⋅ Kalehua Kim ⋅ Lydia Kim ⋅ Yi Shun Lai ⋅ Cassandra Lane ⋅ Devi S. Laskar Sherilyn Lee ⋅ Lavonne Leong ⋅ Joanna Mailani Lima ⋅ Grace Hwang Lynch ⋅ Aretha Matt ⋅ DW McKinney ⋅ Sarah E. Mcquate ⋅ Claire Meuschke Donna Miscolta ⋅ Sandy Namgung ⋅ Shaina A. Nez Joan Obra ⋅ Preeti Parikh ⋅ Deesha Philyaw London Pinkney ⋅ Saarika Rao ⋅ Barbara Jane Reyes ⋅ Roshni Riar ⋅ Karen Rigby ⋅ Rahna Reiko Rizzuto ⋅ Adrienne Robillard ⋅ Daleelah Saleh Shei Sanchez ⋅ Misty Sanico ⋅ Misty Shock Rule SJ Sindu ⋅ Gabrielle Smith ⋅ Jen Soriano ⋅ Liza Sparks ⋅ Anupama Spencer ⋅ Elizabeth Su Victoria Sun ⋅ Yong Takahashi ⋅ Grace Talusan Jeanne Tanaka ⋅ Imani Tolliver ⋅ Frances Kai-Hwa Wang ⋅ Keʻalohi Wang ⋅ Durthy A. Washington Z. Williams ⋅ Jane Wong
Available from Woodhall Press
