Writing the Gothic with Bronte Shiltz

Comma Press Writers' days are perfect for beginner writers to experiment with new forms and meet new people!

Join us in Manchester this October for a gothic workshop, led by author Bronte Shiltz, followed by a panel discussion where Bronte will be joined by fellow writers Leonie Rowland and a second TBC.

This is the perfect chance to ask questions about writing or getting published. There will also be time for any book signings!

Tickets are free of charge but please RSVP so we know who's coming!

Date and location TBC. Will take place the weekend of October 19/20th in central Manchester. Email [email protected] for more info.

Order (approximate)

10.45-12.15 pm workshop - led by Bronte Schiltz

12.15 pm -12.45 pm - Break for Lunch

12.45 - 2pm - Readings, Panel & Q&A

About the authors:

Brontë Schiltz is a journalist with The Big Issue and Big Issue North, a freelance contributor to Horrified Magazine, and a PhD candidate with the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she researches the Televisual Gothic (horror on and about TV). She is a writer of short stories, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and theatre, and her work has featured in publications including Lotus Eater Magazine, Olney Magazine, The First Line and Hungry Ghost Magazine. She has also appeared on podcasts including The Ghost Story Book Club, Victorian Legacies, BERGCAST and Chronicles of the Quarter Life.

Leonie Rowland is a therapeutic writing practitioner and meditation teacher with an unexpected background in Gothic literature. She is the author of In Bed with Melon Bread (2021) and This Time of Life is Meant for Savages (2023). Leonie was a postgraduate with the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at MMU and, several lifetimes ago, the Co-Director of Grimmfest and the Editor-in-Chief of The Hungry Ghost Project. She is currently friends with most of her ghosts.

About Comma Press:

Founded by Ra Page and Sarah Eyre, and formally incorporated in 2007, Comma's initial purpose was to redress the dearth of short story publishing opportunities in the UK, bringing award-winning writers like David Constantine, Sara Maitland and Adam Marek to new audiences. Our popular, long-running 'Reading the City' series has proven that people's engagement with place can override other barriers to reading fiction in translation, and has now visited over 20 cities worldwide. Our interdisciplinary commissions celebrate the short story's ability to take deep dives into cutting-edge research, and our 'Futures Past' series has delivered ground-breaking anthologies of science fiction from Palestine, Iraq, Kurdistan and elsewhere.

Comma has an international reputation for excellent and ground-breaking commissioning. Our titles and authors have won multiple awards ranging from the World Fantasy Award (Robert Shearman's Tiny Deaths, 2008) and the Shirley Jackson Award (The New Uncanny, 2008) to the BBC National Short Story Award (David Constantine, 2010the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (David Constantine's Tea at the Midland, 2013), the Caine Prize (Bushra Al-Fadil, 2017), and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (Hassan Blasim's The Iraqi Christ 2014) – the first time it had been won by a short story collection or a book translated from the Arabic. Our podcast was shortlisted for the 2019 FutureBook Award, Podcast of the Year, and, as a publisher, we won the 2020 Small Press of the Year (Northern Region) at The Bookseller’s British Book Awards. In 2017 we also won the inaugural Northern Soul Northern Publisher of the Year Award. Comma has published two subsequent Nobel Prize winners; it has sold rights to its titles into over 30 languages, sold 7 titles to Audible, seen over 60 stories broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and had two stories adapted for the big screen: POSSUM (dir. Matthew Holness) and 45 YEARS (dir. Andrew Haigh), the latter receiving an Oscar nomination for Charlotte Rampling, winning 2 Silver Bears at Berlinale and being voted The Guardian's No. 1 best film of 2015.

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