There is magic in these small stories. Juana Culhane weaves spells that mysteriously capture your imagination and lure you into a world of archaic symbols and erotic fantasies.

    Harriet Sohmers Zwerling, author of Notes of a Nude Model & other pieces

A complex tapestry of short, brilliantly-written vignettes, The Celestial Monster, by Juana Culhane, is the journey of one woman’s life recalled in flash points in time. Never one to white-wash or revise her past, Joanna, in old age, rummages unsentimentally through a maelstrom of memories —some still raw and disturbing-- that begin with her childhood in Guatemala then meander through the decades, chronicling, in rich, vibrant detail, the unique events that shaped her personal rites of passage. Growing up, growingold, life, death and love all collide, often with wrenching consequences, but in the end, these stories merge into a quiet meditation of forgiveness and self-acceptance. Original and unforgettable.

    Judie Wolkoff, author of Ace Hits the Big Time & Happily Ever After...Almost

In this wise, generous volume - part memoir, part fable—Juana Culhane melds her Mayan, Hispanic, English and Irish heritage into the account of one woman’s life—distinctly contemporary, completely American. This book is a beauty!

    Elaine Edelman, author of Noeva: Three Women Poets

More like a revelation of brilliant elegance, this book speaks to our universal yearnings of spirit and soul. A transformative journey, its magic will touch the depths of your very being, carrying you a long way after you finish it.

    Marcella Bakur Weiner, Ph.D. author of The Love Campatibility Book, The Sacred Portable Now, A Woman’s Voice, After His Affair, and many others