Sublime Horror

The Luminous Dead is US-based writer Caitlin Starling's debut novel about a caver on a foreign planet who finds herself on a terrifying psychological and emotional journey for survival, a claustrophobic blend of horror and sci-fi. Visit the accompanying article on sublimehorror.com (https://www.sublimehorror.com/caitlinstarling/) to find a link to the book, Caitlin's website, and how you can mathematically prove that Winston Churchill was a carrot. 

Catriona Ward's second novel Little Eve, a 1920s murder mystery set on a remote Scottish island within a nature-worshipping cult, was nominated for a 2018 Shirley Jackson Award. Topics discussed in this interview include: The pleasure and utility of writing and publishing short stories The joys of getting writing away from home in new environments Ward's second novel Little Eve The importance of setting in Ward's fiction (and why setting might not always matter) Teaching in writing workshops  Visit the accompanying article on sublimehorror.com (http://bit.ly/catrionaward) to find links to Catriona Ward's novels, the short story collections she's contributed to, Peter's interview with her from 2015 shortly after the publication of her debut novel, as well as the writing workshops she's involved with. 

Jessica Gildersleeve is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Southern Queensland and is the author of a book dedicated to the 1973 film Don't Look Now. In this episode Peter speaks to Jessica about the film and what makes it special, especially in the context of the other horror films of the same period.  Watch the trailer (https://youtu.be/AUWB-Kw4FiM) for Don't Look Now  Buy Jessica Gildersleeve's book (https://amzn.to/2VMxoeF) on Don't Look Now See more books in the Devil's Advocates series (https://bit.ly/2HDkmw4)

Niamh Boyce's debut novel, The Herbalist, a 'deeply moving and viscerally powerful novel about the lives of women in 1930s Ireland', was released back in 2013. Boyce's follow-up, Her Kind, the subject of this episode's conversation, is also a historical novel set in Ireland but we have to look much further back to the 14th century for the events that inspired it. The Kilkenny Witch Trial, while historically significant, has been neglected in fiction and Boyce's novel intends to shift the perspective to those central to the trial: Alice Kyteler and her servant Petronilla. Her Kind is published by Penguin Ireland - find out more, including where to buy the book, here (https://www.sublimehorror.com/herkind/) . 

Kendall R. Phillips is a professor of rhetoric at Syracuse University and in 2018 published a book titled A Place of Darkness: The Rhetoric of Horror in Early American Cinema (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477315519/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=sublimehorror-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1477315519&linkId=0b3ee916d2c403ce07ba48a7396ff9f9) with University of Texas Press. The book is a fascinating look at how horror came to be in American cinema, tracking the development of the horrific and uncanny in films up until 1931, the year Tod Browning's Dracula was released and the term "horror film" entered our common vocabulary. Peter wrote a review of Phillips' book, discussing most of the major points it raises, which you can read here (https://www.sublimehorror.com/books/place-darkness-rhetoric-horror-american-cinema-review/) . You can also read Phillips' watch list The birth of horror in seven films (https://www.sublimehorror.com/film/the-birth-of-horror-in-seven-films/) which takes you a video journey of early "pre-horror" cinema. 

Marion Gibson's latest book on the history of Witchcraft is out now (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witchcraft-Basics-Marion-Gibson/dp/1138779970/) .  Read more on horror, including the latest book reviews, on https://www.sublimehorror.com.