About

Josh Wagner was born with a hole in his heart, a Ventricular Septal Defect. But he’s doing okay now. His writing has been described as lyrical, whimsical, and incisive. Fascinated by rhizomes, paradoxes, and things left unsaid, Wagner prefers keeping a toe or two in the currents of the magical and the fantastic. His publication credits include Cafe Irreal, Fish Publishing, Not One of Us, Cleaver Magazine, Medulla Review, Fractured Lit, the Lovecraft eZine, and Image Comics. He has won awards for his work in comics and theatre, and enjoys working with film and composing music. But fiction remains his true and abiding love.

Josh received his BA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and his MSc from the University of Edinburgh. Extensive travel and living abroad have contributed to the peculiar flavors in his work. These days he abides in a small, possibly haunted cottage in Ireland where he has been working toward a PhD in Creative Practice, researching forest-based art, posthumanism, spectralities and the nebulas of grief.

Blog

Son of a Rainbow

Two weeks ago I was given the gift of a conversation with my dear friend Amelia, who produces an incredible podcast about people and stories. She offered me an opportunity to talk about my mom, my writing, and last year’s horrible and heartbreaking events. It was both agonizing and healing to be able to tell the …

Video and Audio

Featured at the International Widlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana, 2022
Reading: EVENING CLAY, by Josh Wagner from Wildsound Festival.
The Midlife Dragon, animated and performed by Hugh Bickley, story by Josh Wagner

Wagner discusses the writing life, his influences, and his experiences following the tragic loss of his mother.
VOICE shot by Jon Aaseng SHAPES THE SUNLIGHT TAKES, Chapter Zero, read by the author SHAPES THE SUNLIGHT TAKES, “Derwin & Mirielle,” read by the author. Adam Funn by Brad Wilson and Josh Wagner Mystery Mark by Theo Ellsworth and Josh Wagner, shot by Kier Atherton Mother Ash read by the author