New Release
So as Not to Die Alone
(2024)
​So as Not to Die Alone is a song about the ache of living. A brutally honest snapshot of both the anxieties and optimism of modern American life, this collection includes narratives about sexual fluidity, loss of a parent, shattered dreams, addiction, and teen pregnancy, among others. One story was a Finalist in the 2022 London Independent Story Prize Competition and is included in the 2023 London Independent Story Prize Competition Anthology.
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Lisa Johnson Mitchell has the remarkable ability to craft entire characters –all their beauty and all their flaws –in a single, perfect sentence. These sentences then come together to make stories that are heartbreaking, tragic, sometimes absurd, and often hopeful. In the end, this sharp collection presents a brutally honest snapshot of both the anxieties and optimism of modern American life.
Samantha Mabry, National Book Award-nominated author of All the Wind in the World and Tigers, Not Daughters
Praise & Reviews
The heroes and heroines in Lisa Johnson Mitchell’s debut story collection, So as Not to Die Alone, reach for connection even through their own jadedness and the static around them. Mitchell is a comic acrobat, her details startling yet perfect, her language playful and inventive, whether ships are sinking or somehow making their way back to the surface. A thoroughly rewarding debut.
Steve Adams, Pushcart Award-winning author of Remember This
​Lisa Johnson Mitchell‘s collection is a thought-provoking and emotionally charged journey that delves deep into the complexities of human experience. Through a diverse cast of characters, Mitchell expertly explores themes of sexual fluidity, loss, shattered dreams, addiction, and teen pregnancy with raw honesty and vulnerability. Each story is a masterful blend of pain and hope, leaving a lasting impact on the reader.
Blake Kimzey, author of Families Among Us
About Lisa Johnson Mitchell
Lisa Johnson Mitchell is as author/short story writer whose work has appeared in Fictive Dream, Cleaver, and Litro Online, among others. One of her stories placed in the Top 10 of the 2020 Columbia Journal Short Fiction Contest. Another received an Honorable Mention from Glimmer Train and was a Semi-Finalist in the ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Contest. She was a resident at the Vermont Studio Center and holds an MFA from Bennington College. She has a rescue pup named Cornbread.
© 2025 by L. J. Mitchell
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