Category Archives: Uncategorized

October is dedicated to crime here at Romancing the Gothic it (reading about it, not doing it!) Today (7th October), we’re joined by Jordan Welsh to talk ‘How Cosy is your Crime?’ and he has provided a reading and watch list to get people started delving into the world of ‘cosy crime’, right from itsContinue reading “Cosy Crime Reading (and watch) List from Jordan Welsh”

When people think of the Gothic, Mary Shelley’s name is bound to come up. Her early masterpiece Frankenstein (1818) is one of the first examples people come up with when naming Gothic novels. For today’s story, I wanted to introduce some of her lesser known writing. She was a fairly prolific author with several novelsContinue reading “Day 6 of ‘A Scare a Day’ – ‘The Transformation’ by Mary Shelley”

At the moment, I’m working as a Research Fellow at Nottingham University on a Byron project and am based at Newstead Abbey (Byron’s ancestral home) so it was inevitable that Byron was going to find his way into this year’s list. Today we’re reading his relatively short poem Darkness which you can read here andContinue reading “Day 5 of ‘A Scare a Day’ – ‘Darkness’ by Lord Byron”

I’ve read this story a lot and I’ve talked about it a lot. I’ve taught it, I’ve written about it, I’ve recorded myself talking about it… I want to try and not just repeat myself with this blog so I’m going to point you to my latest relevant talk. In this investigation of the relationshipContinue reading “Day 4 ‘A Scare a Day’ – ‘The Vampyre’ by Polidori”

Today’s poem is from a lesser known writer, Anne Bannerman. One of the great things about these kinds of challenges is finding new authors and I have high hopes that Anne Bannerman will be new to some! Bannerman was a Scottish poet who was particularly known for her sonnet cycles and her Gothic ballads. Today’sContinue reading “Day 3 of ‘A Scare a Day’ – ‘The Dark Ladie’”

Welcome back to day 2! You can find today’s poem here This is the first of this month’s vampire texts. The Bride of Corinth (original – Die Braut Von Korinth) was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1797. It’s one of the many pieces of poetry, drama and ‘horrid’ writing that made it’s wayContinue reading “Day 2 #AScareADay Challenge – Bride of Corinth”

This is the second annual, story a day challenge for October. You can find the whole list here. I’m also trying something new by blogging about each story (when I can manage to around other commitments). I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments as well. Last year, we started in the eighteenth century.Continue reading “Day 1 #AScareADay challenge – ‘The Lay of the Werewolf’”

Last year, we had our first Romancing the Gothic October read-a-long #AGhostADay. This year, we’re changing the title to #AScareADay because I can’t always promise ghosts! To be fair, not every story or poem is scary either. Some are creepy, some are haunting, some might simply chill you to the bone… Each day in October,Continue reading “The October #AScareADay Challenge”

An ONLINE conference on 24th and 25th August 2024 marking the 200th anniversary of James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner REVISED SUBMISSION DATE: 31st MARCH 2024 The conference is entirely online and is open to scholars and experts from around the world. In 1824, the Ettrick Shepherd, James Hogg, wrote hisContinue reading “Devils and Justified Sinners – 2024 Conference”

This year’s Romancing the Gothic is happening in August. You can find more information here on ‘The Supernatural and Witchcraft in Belief, Practice and Depiction’. We know that it might be people’s first time applying to a conference or the first using British conventions. You might just not be feeling confident about abstract writing. ToContinue reading “Abstract Writing Workshop”