Modern Gothic launch at Bluecoat, Liverpool

The witching hour is upon us, and, just in time for Halloween, Manchester-based Fly On The Wall Press has launched a new horror anthology, Modern Gothic, with various tied-in events – including this launch in Liverpool, organised in partnership with Dead Ink Books.

Modern Gothic brings together strange and unsettling tales that are perfect for fans of the macabre as we enter the spooky season – prepare to encounter tyrannical landlords with sinister requests, ethereal housemates, haunting comings of age and a glass-encased jungle built by an eccentric father. With contributions by award-winning poet Lerah Mae Barcenilla, associate lecturer at Birkbeck Rose Biggin, Pushcart Prize-nominated fiction writer Michael Bird, acclaimed playwright Pete Hartley and Professor Edward Karshner, this collection of gothic stories blurs the lines between dreams and reality, weaving a tapestry of macabre encounters and festering secrets…

My Book Corner’s Marika Page called Modern Gothic: “A fantastic collection for lovers of eerie, atmospheric and quintessentially gothic tales that are all unique and memorable.”

Reading at this Liverpool event (please note that, due to increased demand for tickets, this now takes place at the Bluecoat Arts Centre in the city centre rather than the original billed venue of Dead Ink Books bookshop on Smithdown Road), are contributing author Lauren Archer and Alyssa Lloyd, host of Book Club in the Pub / Small Press Book Club and “friend of the shop / pro-goth”. Both also run the small press-focused inclusive book club Feminist Fiction. Based in Liverpool, Lauren Archer is a writer of the gothic, surreal and strange. Her short story ‘The Allotment’ was longlisted for the Mslexia Short Story Prize while ‘Out of Water’ was published by Crow and Cross Keys literary journal. She will be chatting to Alyssa about what constitutes modern gothic literature, so prepare to be thrilled and chilled…

Alyssa Lloyd has written about the anthology: “These macabre tales feature oppressive, labyrinthine dreams, and even more unsettling realities. This is a damp, festering collection full of death and decay – rotten petals, decomposing carcasses, creeping fungi – with a really interesting theme of living situations or, as one story puts it, ‘unhomely homes’. The characters in these stories are all experiencing their own forms of haunting, and must question the boundaries between the real and the imagined.”

Can’t get to Liverpool? Head to Blackwell’s in Manchester on Friday 11 October for a showcase of some of the Modern Gothic writers, or find out from FOTW about their online event on 28 October. On 29 October, contributor Pete Hartley will be delivering a lunchtime lecture at House of Books and Friends, discussing the six pillars of the gothic genre, and will be reading extracts from Modern Gothic. HOBAF bookseller Brooke Smith says: “Modern Gothic is a tour de force of short horror fiction. Sometimes gruesome and always uncomfortable this collection will disquiet any reader, its perfect for fans of the weird.”