Literary Fiction
Manjula Lisa Stokes
Author of Celeste & Chris, The Dreamland Picture Show, and the forthcoming This Could Be the Place.
Explore the WorkSelected titles
The Work
Forthcoming
This Could Be the Place
A memoir forthcoming from High Frequency Press. Details to be announced.
Stay in Touch →
Literary Fiction
Celeste & Chris
Set in 1960s California, a turbulent time encompassing the push for sexual and political liberation by a youth forced to grow under religious and social strictures that have become intolerable. Celeste and Chris create a bond as outcast children that they imagine will be unbreakable.
"With clear and nimble prose that resonates like poetry, Manjula Stokes unleashes CELESTE & CHRIS, a glorious wild, feverish novel about characters finding their places and forming families within an often bewildering world. Stokes is a phenomenal writer, and this is a phenomenal book." — Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and In Awe.
Learn More →
Cover Forthcoming
The Dreamland Picture Show
A historical novel about two dreamers who came to Hollywood in 1915 to pursue a life in making moving pictures.
Learn More →“Mundane moments, as holy as any other, inhabit white space. Drama is in black ink.”
— Manjula Lisa Stokes
The author
About Manjula Lisa
Manjula Lisa Stokes is the author of the novels Celeste & Chris and The Dreamland Picture Show. Her young adult novel Blue Monkeys was a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Her forthcoming memoir This Could Be the Place will be published by High Frequency Press.
Her short stories have appeared in the Southern California Review and New Guard. She is an educator who lives in Santa Cruz, near her family.
Get in Touch →Press & Media
Sell Sheet
For booksellers, librarians, and media inquiries — a one-page overview of Manjula Lisa Stokes and her novel Celeste & Chris is available.
Download Sell SheetLiterary Fiction
Celeste & Chris
A novel exploring the depths of memory, identity, and the stories that shape us.
Download PDFReach out
Get in Touch
For inquiries about readings, interviews, or rights, reach out below.