The Ghost Tour of Little Tokyo Wishes to Apologize
WINNER! Imagine Little Tokyo Contest 2026
When a real ghost takes over a ghost tour in Little Tokyo, the owners file an insurance appeal while the ghost has claims of her own.
NationalBestseller.com · Official Documents from Unofficial Disasters
Award-winning short story writer
Paul Griffiths
If Mitch Hedberg translated Calvino... a very wet sense of humor
Non mi serve lo scontrino per una ciambella.
About
Paul Griffiths writes comic literary fiction about people who have perfectly good explanations for their behavior, even as the evidence mounts against them. His stories feature gods with business plans, a middle-aged wizard in therapy, a ghost tour with insurance claims, and romantic gestures of questionable legality. Often told through unconventional forms - such as letters, academic papers, corporate presentations, even musical notation - his fiction explores the strange ways people rationalize love, ambition, shame, and grief.
A graduate of Boston University's Creative Writing Program, Griffiths won the 2026 Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest. His work has appeared in StoryQuarterly, Forklift, Ohio, and The Sarah Lawrence Review. He was a work-scholar at Bread Loaf, was a resident at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, and was awarded a Sue-Je Lee Gage Residency for Human Rights and Social Justice.
Stories
Postcards from the Flood
The real housewives of Noah's Ark let loose.
Published in Story Quarterly
Misterioso
An impoverished Italian composer falls in love with a young governess and attempts to capture his feelings in a melody he cannot finish. A story about romantic longing, told partly through musical notation.
Friends
A small loan between old high school friends curdles into obsession, class resentment, nostalgia, and humiliation.
On the Matter of the Last Interaction I Had with Your Son
A billionaire’s son disappears. His bodyguard writes the father a painstakingly candid account of everything that wasn’t his fault.
Corrections
A corporate turnaround presentation contains secret speaker notes: advice from a disgraced father to his son.
Love Story
A woman steals her ex-boyfriend's body of research: an octopus. At a roadside diner, a long-married couple debates about whether this is love.
The Somnambulist at Rest
Haunted by his dead wife and fading fame, a legendary magician embarks on one final tour in search of an impossible escape.
Harold
The world's most famous wizard attempts therapy in middle age.
What's Love Go To Do With It?
A sociologist documents her online dating life as a research project.
Monster
A horror-franchise monster wants to be loved. His fans want another sequel.
Mere Mortals
A Greek island is overrun with the gods of Silicon Valley.
Official documents from unofficial disasters.
Current Project
Paul is currently working on a collection of stories about the myths people build around their lives and what happens when those myths collapse.