Out Now

The Girl Who 

a novel in stories

  • Alligator girls. Girls who become gardens. Girls who have been raised by rabbits. From the cosmic to the intimate, each story weaves a strange and compelling tapestry that you won’t be able to look away from.

    -Christopher Barzak, Shirley Jackson Award Winning author of Monstrous Alterations.

  • Tender and searing, and at times funny, Johnson's prose stuns with details that render even the most magical elements of these stories vividly real.

    -Sadie Hoagland , author of Strange Children

  • Johnson creates a world where fantasy bleeds into the everyday, where your best friend might be The Queen of All Magic, a gang of sirens live down the street, and that call centre where you work might in fact be Hell.

    Tim Jeffreys, author of You Will Never Lose Me

  • The strange, the mysterious, and the magical dance hand in hand with the ordinary in Couri Johnson’s powerful tales, but the ordinary turns out to be just as strange and magical as any fairy tale—and just as full of thorns.

    – Rebecca Barnhouse, author of The Book of the Maidservant

Short Stories and Flash Fiction

From the Girl Who - a novel in stories

The Girl Who Finds a Moss So Soft, You Can Sleep In It - After Happy Hour Review - absurdist horror

A wayward daughter finds herself in the woods one day where she encounters something strange.

The Girl Who Tends the Paper Forest - Tatterhood Review - fabulism/fairy tale, magical realism

He finds her on the side of the road, and it is raining. This is how it begins for them. This is how it always begins.

The cover of TulipTree's literary journal.

The Girl Who Visited the Alligator Queen - TulipTree - fabulism/fairy tale, magical realism

Winner of Tulip Tree’s Wild Women Contest

In the abandoned mall, the Alligator Queen and her court wait to grant your wishes.

The Girl and the Fragmented Body - Fatal Flaw - horror, magical realism

The night the silvering begins starts with a dinner with her colleagues, though she supposes colleagues is not the right word for them, exactly.

The cover of the novel-in-stories, The Girl Who

From I’ll Tell You a Love Story

Anatomist - Obra Artifact/PseudoPod - horror, magical realism

After the earthquake, she goes out collecting bones.

At the Center of Everything - Cagibi - speculative, magical realism

There is a being smack dab in the center of the universe. It sits at the very point from which everything imploded out, and to which one day everything will slowly return.

Curlew - Psychopomp - fabulism, magical realism

There was a woman who died and left behind something important. Her youngest daughter was sent to bring it to her. To keep it safe, it was placed inside of a curlew.

The Cover of Dark Lane's Horror anthology

Tale Telling - Syntax & Salt - fairy tale/fabulism

There is a building in town whose roof is dotted with plastic dog statues.

I’ll Tell You a Love Story - Bone Parade - fairy tale/fabulism

You’ll have to forgive me for waiting to tell this to you when you’re sleeping, but it’s the only way I can do it.

Dancing Girls - Weird City - horror, fairy tale

The Twelve Dancing Princess live down the road in a one-bedroom apartment.

Thursday - Broken Pencil - fabulism, magical realism

After your rejection, I’ll start drinking. Or rather, I’ll keep drinking, but I’ll be doing it with intent. That’s a completely different beast. I’ll become a completely different beast. By Thursday, you won’t recognize me.

My Darling, Where Have You Gone? - Dark Lane - fairy tale/fabulism

The Witch-Girl lives in the forest of loss.

The Woman the Spiders Loved - Penultimate Peanut/PsuedoPod - horror, fairy tale/fabulism 

There was a woman who the spiders fell in love with. You knew her in high school, but you weren’t friends. She was plainish. She still is.

The cover of the first issue of Weird City

Uncollected Short Stories

Clowntown -Thrice Fiction- absurdist, magical realism, flash fiction

Neither of us were happy with the neighborhood to begin with…

The Oakton - Aphelion - horror

Sunny days were the worst. On days it was raining there would be a steady enough base of customers pouring through, never enough to fill the lobby, but enough to keep them at bay.

Providence - Deimois - speculative, horror

We all agree that Annie getting struck by lightning was the best thing that could have happened.

Dream Girls - Tales From the Grave - horror

When she comes back, she isn’t how he imagined her.

After I Had Prayed…-50 Word - microfiction

When I came home from work the bird wasn’t singing in its cage.

Dearest, I Am Sorry - 50 Word - microfiction

Loneliness had been an epidemic that left all of my body boarded up.