courtney hunter-stangler is a philadelphia-based writer and creative. courtney’s lifelong training as a dancer led her to writing in 2017, when she produced a contemporary dance piece for the philadelphia fringe festival about the ethics of artificial intelligence that inspired her to self-publish a science fiction novel.

sentience, courtney’s debut novel, helped her gain admission into the university of california riverside’s low-residency mfa program, and in december 2023, she graduated with a concentration in fiction. at ucr, courtney had the privilege of working on her second book, a literary crime novel set in her hometown in philadelphia (think mare of easttown meets mystic river), with ivy pochoda and stephen graham jones.

courtney’s writing has granted her admission to the university of massachusetts amherst 2022 juniper summer writing institute and has been featured in publications such as root quarterly, dread central, the lineup, and Murder & Mayhem.

outside of writing fiction, courtney works as a contract specialist writing national contracts for the department of defense. on the rare occasion she chills the hell out, she’s cuddling one of her four rescue pups or binging criminal minds with her husband.

She loves eating taco bell and watching horror movies but not at the same time.