Joe Koch writes literary horror and surrealist trash.
Their books include The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Invaginies, Convulsive, The Shipwreck of the Cerberus, and The Couvade, which received a Shirley Jackson Award nomination in 2019. His short stories have been chosen for The Best Weird Fiction of the Year, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, and Brave New Weird: The Best New Weird Horror. With over 100 short stories published since he cavalierly began his writing experiment in 2015, Joe has appeared in many & diverse anthologies and journals, including Southwest Review, Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, PseudoPod, The Deadlands, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Seize The Press, Bodypunk, God’s Cruel Joke: Speculative Erotics, and The Mad Butterfly’s Ball. Anthologies featuring his work have won both Shirley Jackson and British Fantasy awards.
Additionally, Joe has guest edited for Cemetery Gates Media, and both conceptualized and co-edited the art horror anthology Stories of the Eye with Weirdpunk Books. Their fiction has also been translated into Spanish and Italian, including an illustrated gatefold paperback edition of The Wingspan of Severed Hands issued by Dilatando Mentes Editorial.
Joe was formerly published as Joanna Koch in several venues prior to 2021, and some websites, bookshops, and libraries still list The Wingspan of Severed Hands under this name, making it difficult for readers to connect with Joe’s entire body of work without the burden of doing extra research. This is very unfortunate.
Pronouns are He/Him with a little bit of They thrown in to keep things lively. You can find Joe on Bluesky with username horrosong.blog for the time being.
Follow here to get links to new stories as they’re published, as well as news of upcoming book releases and events.
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Books
Online Fiction
Print Anthologies and Journals
Guest Posts: Writing About Writing
Order INVAGINIES from Clash Books!
Invaginies is an invasion, it is a perception that is bodily and transcendent creating holes, paths, or pockets of alternate truth—and not always voluntary—enlightenment.
The Wingspan of Severed Hands
Time is the winning predator, and every moment spirals deeper into the heart of the beast.
“I’m awestruck by Joanna Koch’s nonstop spellbinding, almost paralyzingly inventive and yet propulsive, ultra-focused prose. The Wingspan of Severed Hands is a truly amazing find.” — DENNIS COOPER (THE MARBLED SWARM, THE SLUTS)
“Koch’s latest novella is what might have happened if Robert W. Chambers had been a surrealist with a penchant for body horror. A strange trip to Carcosa offered in thickly evocative language, The Wingspan of Severed Hands is a highly original hallucination.” — BRIAN EVENSON (SONG FOR THE UNRAVELING OF THE WORLD, A COLLAPSE OF HORSES)
Read an excerpt of The Wingspan of Severed Hands at Fright Girl Summer-The Wingspan of Severed Hands
Get The Wingspan of Severed Hands paperback from Weirdpunk Books or outside the U.S. from Amazon
Get The Wingspan of Severed Hands e-book from Godless
Get The Wingspan of Severed Hands audiobook from Haruspex Audio
Convulsive
New museums birth atrocity in every flex
“Joe Koch is a phenomenal talent who writes with poetic fury. Heart-rending and fearsome, Convulsive joins a handful of collections that show off the range and importance of contemporary horror.” — LAIRD BARRON (SWIFT TO CHASE)
“The stories of Convulsive dazzle and stun the reader with brutal beauty and surreal intensity. This collection’s deftly subversive themes and stylistic complexity dare you to witness its unique and transgressive radiance.” — TIFFANY MORRIS (HAVOC IN SILENCE)
“Convulsive is packed with stories that are as bloody as they are poetic. This is at once a celebration of horror, an exploration of humanity, and an explosion of beautiful language. Koch will sear their name inside your heart.” GABINO IGLESIAS —(COYOTE SONGS)
The Shipwreck of the Cerberus
200 limited edition, signed, cursed chapbooks – Sold out!
Concerning the brazen head of Captain Jim Standard and the thief who absconds with him into the afterlife. Body horror, surrealism, absurd humor, necrophilia, and existential despair. Available from the author in this limited, signed edition of 200.
The Couvade
2019 Shirley Jackson Award finalist for best novelette
“It’s a love story; it’s horror. It’s about abuse and legacy. We’re drawn into the headspace of the past and a morphing reality that feels like a dream both horrifying and beautiful. My head was swimming in emotion by the end. I wish I could pick apart every detail, but the more said, the more spoiled in such a short tale. Follow the strange men to the basement yourself and see what Joanna Koch has created.” — HAILEY PIPER (THE WORM AND HIS KINGS, BENNY ROSE:THE CANNIBAL KING)
Online Podcast Fiction – Listen for Free
Oakmoss and Ambergris on Three-Lobed Burning Eye Magazine Podcast, Issue 35, narration performed by Rain Corbyn.
(Also translated into Spanish in print in the anthology MUNDO WEIRD: ANTOLOGÍA DE NUEVA FICCIÓN EXTRAÑA from Holobionte Ediciones.)
Reviewed by Maria Haskins: “This is an emotionally and erotically charged story of love and desire, greed and lust and transformation. It’s science fiction with a carnal, hungry vibe and I adore every bit of it.”
Offerings on PseudoPod Episode 837, narration performed by Christiana Ellis, reprinted from “Doorbells At Dusk” and “Convulsive”
I Married A Dead Man on Tales To Terrify Episode 595, narration performed by Colin Duncan, reprinted from “What One Wouldn’t Do: An Anthology On The Lengths One Might Go To”
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Horrorsong 