One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

Stephanie Johnson can accomplish in five hundred words what some writers can only do in five thousand: a complete arc of narrative with compelling characters struggling through the web of human frailties, entangled in passion and dependency, love and betrayal, insight and ignorance. She does it by plucking strings of meaning that resonate far beyond the economy of the printed page. And when we finish a story, we realize we had slipped into a compelling world, both strange and familiar, and we miss it. So we read another.

--Jeff McMahon, Editor of Contrary


Stephanie Johnson s fiction like Raymond Carver s celebrates the idea that less, on the page, can be more: her stories are at once lean and rich, poignant and wry, insightful and evocative. An impressive debut.

--Jessica Treadway, author of And Give You Peace and Absent Without Leave


There is, in Stephanie Johnson s stories, a profound, unflashy magic of seeing. She puts you right up to the beating hearts of her people from which vantage, you see how they miss one another, and you understand as odd, perfect miracles their moments of connection and knowledge.

--Scott Garson, author of American Gymnopédies