In this workshop, you will learn what modern, “post-horror” techniques can offer your writing, and how to create a pervasive mood that will unsettle and disturb your readers.
“The best ghost stories don’t have ghosts in them,” claimed Roald Dahl, and many modern ghost-story writers seem to agree. Instead of apparitions, they haunt their worlds with atmosphere – and practice a kind of sublime dread as an aesthetic. In this workshop, you will learn how to create atmosphere through metaphor and word choice, summoning the sense of a lingering presence via defamiliarization techniques and the subversion of expectations.
What will you do in the workshop?
We’ll discuss a range of horror-fiction extracts that make a nightmare of our world, as well as the unsettling philosophies that inspired them. Following these discussions, you will have the opportunity through writing exercises to create your own atmospheric horrors.
What can participants expect?
Using example texts and written exercises, you will learn how to create an unsettling atmosphere within your work. Handouts will be provided on site with extracts from Dan Chaon, Andrew Michael Hurley, Shirley Jackson, and others.
Who is this opportunity for?
This workshop is suitable for prose writers of all levels who want to develop their craft.
Bursary places
We have 5 free bursary places available for writers on a low income. We define this as either earning on or below the London Living Wage and/or in receipt of benefits (e.g. Universal Credit). If you would like to request a bursary place, please email [email protected] with details of your eligibility for a bursary by 28 September 2025.
Access
If you require BSL interpretation, and/or have other access needs please email [email protected] so we can accommodate you.
Published: Thursday 11 September
About the tutor
Alan Gray
See More
Alan Gray is a writer and chartered social psychologist. He is currently studying the Prose Fiction MA at UEA, where he was awarded the inaugural Sonny and Gita Mehta UK Scholarship. His stories have appeared in various print publications and online journals, including Litro and The Fiction Desk. He is a City Writes competition winner and was granted a bursary to participate in the 2025 Stinging Fly Summer School. He is from Horden, County Durham, North East England, and lives in London.