Modern Gothic

Lauren Archer is a writer of the gothic, surreal and strange based in Liverpool, UK. Her short story 'Out of Water' was published by Crow and Cross Keys literary journal. In 2022, her short story 'The Allotment' was longlisted for the Mslexia Short Story Prize.



Fiction by Michael Bird has been published constantly over the last few years, most recently on urban witchcraft, ‘The New Client’, in Panel Magazine, (Budapest, 2023), on deranged fandom, ‘I Named Every Donut in My Shop After Scorsese Movies. No One Bought The Departed’, in Daily Drunk Mag (New Orleans, 2023), and on family politics during the pandemic, ‘A Drive Through the Park’, in Porter House Review (Austin, Texas, 2022). Mixed media ‘These Walls of Me’ was Winner of Second Prize on www.theshortstory.net (UK, 2018), and he has also been published by British journals and sites Lune, Grist, Storgy, Bandit Fiction, and in two anthologies of the annual Bristol Short Story Prize. In 2022, his body horror story about a McDonald’s mascot from the 80s, ‘Fry Girl 4 Eva’ (USA), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He also works as an investigative and narrative journalist, with features published on organised crime, stray dogs, vampire-hunters, killer home-made drugs, food emergencies, the war in Ukraine and organic farming.



Rose Biggin is a writer and theatre performer based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in various anthologies, made the recommended reading list for Best of British Fantasy, and won the Dark Sire's Gothic Fiction Prize. Her historical gothic novel THE BELLADONNA INVITATION is forthcoming from Ghost Orchid Press. She is an associate lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck.



Lerah Mae Barcenilla grew up in Cuartero, Capiz in the Philippines full of magic, superstition and tradition before moving to the UK. Her work touches on topics of the diaspora, memory, mythology, folklore and the state of duality. Her writing has appeared in Harana Poetry, with Verve Poetry Press, was Highly Commended in The Literary Consultancy’s PEN Factor Award–Novel (2021) and won the Creative Future Writers Award–Platinum Poetry (2022). When she is not writing, she works as a marketing officer for the charity responsible for two of Birmingham’s iconic concert halls and as a researcher for Maniwala Movement, an Instagram account sharing resources on the cultures, customs and beliefs of pre-colonial Philippines.



Hartley boasts an extensive writing career with numerous accolades, including winning the BBC Radio North West Playwriting Competition and the Cheshire Community Council playwriting competition. His plays, such as "Making the Grade" and "Gertie and the Guild Machine," have received critical acclaim and have been produced in various venues.



Edward Karshner, Associate Professor of English at Robert Morris University, teaches courses in writing and Appalachian Literature. His short fiction appears in the anthologies Haints and Hollers, Shelved (both from Mountain Gap Books, 2019 and 2020) and It Came from the Swamp (Malarkey Books, 2022). His creative non-fiction appears in the anthology Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (West Virginia University Press, 2019), the Appalachian culture blog Blind Pig and the Acorn and the on-line magazine Reckon Review where he is a recurring columnist. A 2022 Summer Research Fellow at Berea College Special Collection and Archives, Karshner is also a featured presenter at the 2023 Amesville Writers’ Workshop in Appalachia Ohio.