Joe Koch writes literary horror and surrealist trash. Joe is a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and the author of The Wingspan of Severed Hands, The Couvade, and Convulsive. They’ve had over eighty short stories published in books and journals like Vastarien, Southwest Review, PseudoPod, Children of the New Flesh, and The Queer Book of Saints. He’s also the co-editor of the art horror anthology Stories of the Eye from Weirdpunk Books. Formerly published as Joanna Koch in some venues. He/they. Follow here for updates and find Joe on Twitter@horrorsong
Books
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
Buy The Wingspan of Severed Hands paperback from Weirdpunk Books or outside the U.S. from Amazon
Buy The Wingspan of Severed Hands e-book from Godless
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 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 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”
Print Anthologies and Journals
Paradisum Voluptatis in the anthology “Honey and Sulphur” from CarrionBlue555. Reprinted in “Year’s Best Hardcore Horror 5: Going Global”
The Revenge of Madeline Usher in the Bram Stoker nominated anthology “Not All Monsters” from Rooster Republic Press
The Anatomical Christ in the Splatterpunk Award nominated anthology “The Big Book of Blasphemy” from Necro Press
I Tied Your Heart On A String – in “Southwest Review Volume 107, Number 4”
A Scream Lights Up The Sky in “Bound In Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror” from Ghoulish Books
Eggman Sceptic Colony in “His Soul’s Still Dancing: A Nicolas Cage Inspired Fiction Anthology” from Leigham Shardlow
Once You See It in “A Compendium of Creeps: World Folklore, Haunted Locales, and Original Fiction” from Cemetery Gates Media
Five Visitations in “Campfire Macabre 2” from Cemetery Gates Media
Schroedinger’s Head in “In Darkness Delight: Fear the Future” from Corpus Press
Reverend Crow in “Liminal Spaces: An Anthology of Dark Speculative Fiction” from Cemetery Gates Media
Convulsive, Or Not At All in the anthology “In The Shadow Of The Horns: A Black Metal Horror Anthology” from Castaigne Publishing
I Married A Dead Man in “What One Wouldn’t Do: An Anthology On The Lengths One Might Go To” from Scott J. Moses
Every Lucky Penny is Another Drop of Blood in the anthology “In Darkness Delight: Masters of Midnight” from Corpus Press
Offerings in the anthology “Doorbells at Dusk” from Corpus Press. Audio version on PseudoPod Episode 837
Aristotle’s Lantern in the anthology “Stitched Lips” from Dragons Roost Press
The Object Of Your Desire Comes Closer in “Synth #1: An Anthology of Dark SF”
The Bleeding Tree in “Dark Recesses Press Magazine, Vol. 6, Issue 14”
Blood Calumny in “Bodies Full of Burning” from Sliced Up Press – winner of The Brave New Weird Award 2022
The Love That Whirls in “The Queer Book of Saints” from Mae Murray
How To Fillet Angels in “Isolation Is Safety” from Filthy Loot
Peaveman’s Lament in the anthology “ProleSCARYet: Tales of Horror and Class Warfare” from Rad Flesh Press
Rust Belt Requiescat in the anthology “Paranormal Contact: A Quiet Horror Confessional” from Cemetery Gates Media
Mirror Grimoire in the anthology “Villains” from Iron Faerie Press
Iron Henry in the anthology “Fable” from Iron Faerie Press
Mr. Sandman Scratches The Moon in “Sanitarium Magazine, Issue 2”
Silap Inua in the anthology “In The Air” from Transmundane Press
Her Special Sauce in “FANGS” Aphotic Realm Magazine
Kiss Me In The Anodyne in “GRUESOME” Aphotic Realm Magazine
For The Angels, Unseen in the anthology “Shopping List 4” from Hellbound Books
The Girl Who Shouldn’t Have Been in the journal Pins & Needles, Volume 1 (OOP)
Infinite Recursion in the anthology “Game Fiction, Volume One” from Goldshader Press
Alt.Death in the anthology “Trump, Utopia or Dystopia?” from Dark Helix Press
Murder Pop-Up in the anthology “Unsplatterpunk! 3” from Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction
Flutter in the anthology “Death and Butterflies” from Suicide House
Broken in the anthology “The Toilet Zone II” from Hellbound Books
Ugly Sister in the anthology “Putrescent Poems” from Forty-Two Books
Simeon and Me in the anthology “Not Just A Pretty Face” from Dead Light Publishing
We Have Always Lived In The Soil – in the anthology “Field Notes from a Nightmare: An Anthology of Ecological Horror” from Dread Stone Press
Studies After The Human Figure in the anthology “Ceci n’est pas une histoire d’horreur” from Night Terror Novels
Swanmord in the anthology “Beautiful/Grotesque” from Weirdpunk Books
All The Rapes In The Museum in the anthology “Stories of the Eye” from Weirdpunk Books – I’m also co-editor of the book
Laws of Contraction in the anthology “Monstroddities” from Sliced Up Press
Vertigo Autopsy in the anthology “The Dead Inside” from Dark Dispatch
Bride Of The White Rat – in the anthology “Antifa Splatterpunk” from Cursed Morsels Press
More Weight – in the anthology “Shredded: A Sports and Fitness Body Horror Anthology” from Cursed Morsels Press
White River – in the anthology “Tales From Between: Words & Pictures”
Eclipse, Embrace – in the anthology “Let The Weirdness In: A Tribute To Kate Bush” from Heads Dance Press
Leviathan’s Knot – in the anthology “Into The Crypts Of Rays: A Black Metal Horror Anthology, Volume II” from Castaigne Publishing
Invaginies – in the anthology “Children Of The New Flesh: The Early Work And Pervasive Influence Of David Cronenberg” from 11:11 Press
Chironoplasty – in the anthology “Your Body Is Not Your Body” from Tenebrous Press
Fugue – in the journal “Vastarien” Vol. 5, Issue 1, Spring 2022
Online Fiction
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”
Pigman, Pigman winner of Cemetery Gates Society’s Halloween Flash Fiction Contest
Coneland in Shortwave Magazine
Given in Shortwave Magazine
Beloved Of Flies in the Action Books strange fiction series curated by James Pate
L’Homme de Houbigant in The Deadlands, Issue 20, in collaboration with Jonathan Louis Duckworth
Good Paper in Storgy Magazine
The Buried King in Black Telephone Magazine
Dirt Teaching in Eye To The Telescope
Man of The Cloth winner of Cemetery Gates Society’s March Flash Fiction Contest
The Yellow Leaves in Issue 1 of Tales From Between
Veils in 101 Fiction, Issue 23: Pictures
Torsion in 101 Fiction, Issue 25: Time Travel
Santa’s Eyeball at Meghan’s House of Books
President Marilyn Monroe Devours Her Young winner of New Millennium Writing’s Fear contest
When Mona Lisa Speaks in Blood Tree Literature: Issue 6
Rogue in Speculative City: Issue 7: Horror
Bluebeard’s Cleanroom in The Sirens Call, The Sixth Annual Women in Horror Month Edition
Pasta Carbonara in Hello Horror Lit Volume 5, Issue 21
A Lady Does Her Job in The Mystery of the Mysterious Hospital That Was Scary
Hey There, Dollface in The Sirens Call, Issue 41
Sleepwatch in Coffin Bell 2.2
Bloodbath Academy in Hello Horror Lit Volume 7, Issue 27
Tathagata in Crystal Lake’s August 2019 flash fiction contest
Spectrophobia in Eldritch Lake: Issue Zero
Mr. Bones Puzzle Candy in Horror Sleaze Trash
Eating Bees From The Ass Of God in Seize The Press, with Joseph Bouthiette Jr.
Welcome To The Sinkhole in Bear Creek Gazette, July 2022
Can Opener on Dose of Dread
Guest Posts: Writing About Writing
The Hunt for Transmundane Press
The Secret History of Detroit for Inkheist
Joanna Koch Chats With Gregor Xane for Cedar Hollow Horror Reviews
Beyond The Peak for Raft Magazine
A Transmasculine Horror Writer Looks At Lovecraft for Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein
Thank you for reading! If you enjoy my work, please follow this blog for updates. Consider supporting my continued creativity and existence by picking up a copy of CONVULSIVE or THE WINGSPAN OF SEVERED HANDS for yourself, a friend, an evil nemesis, or a local free library.
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