The Literary Gothic | The Gothic Community

Devoted to the expansion and dissemination of information on all aspects of the Gothic, the IGA is THE home for academics and others interested in things Gothic. The IGA sponsors biennial conferences and publishes Gothic Studies: An International Journal of Criticism, Theory, History, and Cultural Studies, the only scholarly journal devoted exclusively to things Gothic.

"The Lord Ruthven Assembly is a scholarly organization which is recognized as a special interest group within the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Its objectives include the serious pursuit of scholarship and research focusing on the vampire/revenant figure in a variety of disciplines. Members actively participate in the annual conference of the IAFA, offering several sessions of academic papers."

"The Ghost Story Society was formed in 1988 to provide admirers of the classic ghost story with an outlet for their interest, and membership of the Society now numbers more than 250 worldwide. The Ghost Story Society offers members an opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas through regular publications and occasional meetings; and if you are thinking of writing, or have written, a ghost story, the Society can help there, too. To date the GSS has held two ghost story competitions, and the Society also publishes an average of five new stories in each issue of its journal, All Hallows."

The GSS is affiliated with Ash-Tree Press, a Canadian publishing house specializing in supernaturalist fiction.

Related Discussion Groups

Note: Author-specific lists will be found on individual author pages.

The groups below represent just a small sample of the many horror-related lists, groups, chat rooms, and whatnot that are available on the web. For more literature-related Gothic/horror groups, visit Yahoo Groups Genres > Horror page and type in an appropriate search term or browse.

"Fearcast . . .is the review email magazine that features horror, science fiction, and fantasy." To subscribe send email to Fearcast@aol.com with subject, Subscribe Fear.

Self-described as "an Internet discussion list which reviews one story a week from the genres of mystery, adventure and The Weird, written between 1800 and 1919. . . . For more information about joining the discussion list, write Stephen Davies and Diana Patterson at Gaslight-Safe@MtRoyal.ab.ca". Or see the Gaslight Web site

An online forum "for people to share REAL and FICTIONAL ghost stories, and other stories of the supernatural. Please feel free to share your own experiences, too!" Subscription/info page.

Official description: "Largely academic-level discussion of the genre of literature known as Gothic. This includes, but is not limited to, Horace Walpole's ground-breaking work through modern neo-Gothic works. This is by no means a "fan club" for pulp fiction writers, but rather an intellectual discussion of this unique genre." Subscription/info page.

This group is for "Discussion of all topics related to weird fiction, Jamesian ghost fiction, supernatural thrillers, and even a smattering of classic SF. Tangentially related topics such as cinema, music, etc. are encouraged." Subscription/info page.

"This is a list that covers everything Horror, From Poe to King to Clegg. Other authors that are frequently discussed include: Clive Barker, Laurell K. Hamilton,Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, Anne Rice, John Saul, Michael Slade and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. We have bi-monthly book reads and also we've has several 'mini' group reads. . . . We do digress from Horror to discuss other genres' like Sci-Fi, Thrillers and Mystery. Lit is also left behind at times to talk about current and past movies. We do some comparison discussion between how the movie stood up to the book and visa versa. Now that e-serials and e-books are in the news, we have/will discuss those a new Lit medium. If you love even one of the authors mentioned or just plain 'Horror' then this list is for you." Subscription/info page or check out the related website.

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts list, which occasionally deals with issues relating to supernaturalist literature. Subscribe: listproc@ebbs.english.vt.edu

A reading group — affiliated w/ CLASSIC GOTHIC HORROR, mentioned above — that reads and discusses one modern horror-tradition work per month. Subscription/info page.

Sponsored by the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, this list does at times touch on Gothic and related literature and its social, cultural, and historical context. NASSR home