Manuela Williams Crosno (1905­­–97) was an English teacher who spent most of her life as a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Early in her writing career, Crosno won a statewide essay contest with her essay, “Why I Teach School.” Interested in Hispanic-American culture, she set her many short stories, poems, and illustrations in the area surrounding Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos. Many of these works were published in two short story collections: The Other Side of Nowhere (1988) and Distant Echoes: Tales from the Land of Enchantment (1991).