Kirjahaku

This anthology is a collection of stories people told me about their experiences with dolls. The original idea came to me when I interviewed my Mexican mother-in-law, who used to make clothes for naked Barbies and sell them for five pesos at the flea market in Guadalajara. Hearing her story was very poignant for me. When I would tell people about it, oftentimes their eyes would go off to one side and they would either look off into the distance or down to the floor, recollecting their own childhood and the dolls they had.

The stories range from humor to tragedy, taking the reader on a ride within the human and sometimes not so human experience. Some of the stories have been previously published in literary journals. The journey is so much about isolating the moment and what the author leaves out, allowing the reader to use his or her imagination. There's an intensity, a flicker in the darkness that may be breathtaking.

What happens when a group of writers meeting once a week, trade prompts and write for one hour? Stories like these appear. Helene's characters find themselves in circumstances that range from absurdly funny, to terrifying, to heart-wrenching. Pull up a chair or kick back on your sofa and enjoy this rollercoaster ride of improvisational short story writing.