Mercuria Press

In a series of interlinked stories that span from 1918 to the present day, this surreal, folklore-inspired book shows us the lives of ten tenants in an apartment building in Spokane, Washington. Among them, we meet a homesick musician struggling with an unusual addiction; a department store mannequin living as a flesh-and-blood woman; and a mother and daughter hosting tea parties for an unlikely guest. These quiet, emotionally fraught tales explore our unseen connections to strangers and the cyclical nature of our collective stories.

Carla Crujido is the Nonfiction Editor at River Styx Magazine. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts and has had work published in Crazyhorse, Yellow Medicine Review, Ricepaper Magazine, Tinfish Press, The Ana, and elsewhere. She lives in Portland, Oregon.