Monthly Archives: January 2018

The Northern YA Literary Festival: Holly Black, Samantha Shannon, Alwyn Hamilton

The Northern YA Literary Festival is hosted by the University of Central Lancashire at Preston, 24 March 2018. This looks a great event: the wonderful Holly Black (probably my favourite author in YA paranormal romance) being interviewed by Samantha Shannon … Continue reading

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There Must Be An Angel #FebruaryAngels

A special announcement – in February OGOM will team up with the ever innovative, entertaining and educational FolkLore Film Festival on Twitter for a month of Angel-inspired fun, heavenly connections and celestial interventions. Join us on Twitter @OGOMProject @FolkloreFilmFes using the … Continue reading

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Big Bad Humans and Benevolent Wolves

Followers of OGOM will know that we have been at the forefront of debates around the cultural representation of the wolf since the Company of Wolves Conference in 2015. We went on to collaborate more fully with the UK Wolf … Continue reading

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Exploring Gothic Romance

As part of my research into the formal qualities of Paranormal Romance, and how different genres encounter each other to generate this new kind of novel, I’m immersing myself into one of its forbears. Gothic Romance (sometimes known as fantasy … Continue reading

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Ursula Le Guin: Tributes and Analysis

Some more valuable links to material on the wonderful Ursula K. Le Guin who, sadly, died on Monday (22 January 2017). Tributes from her fellow writers in SF and fantasy: ‘The Science Fiction and Fantasy Community Remembers Ursula K. Le … Continue reading

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RIP Ursula K. Le Guin

Photo by Marian Wood Kolisch/University of Oregon It’s very sad to hear of the death of Ursula K. Le Guin, aged 88. For me, no other writer of SF or fantasy reaches the heights that she did. She was a … Continue reading

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Literature for the Living Impaired: Teaching Zombie YA Fiction

Histories of zombies tend to focus on their reanimation in film and understandably privilege the birth of the Romero zombie. The ‘living impaired’ in literature are often overlooked in these accounts, together with their relationship to folklore, so I appreciate … Continue reading

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Folk Horror Returns Ahead of The Urban Weird in April

Folk Horror has officially returned!! This could not be more serendipitous given that in three months time the OGOM project will collaborate with Supernatural Cities to present The Urban Weird (6th, 7th April) with more than a slight nod to … Continue reading

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Merpeople and Monstrous Lovers

I’ve not seen Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water yet, but it appears to be an intriguing take on the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ archetype that lies behind the genre of Paranormal Romance. With its love affair between … Continue reading

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Direwolves: Dogs in Wolves’ Clothing in Game of Thrones

OGOM’s ‘Redeeming the Wolf’ event explored how literature, folklore, fairytale, and film have shaped our perceptions of the wolf and could be impeding its return. Odin and Thor (above) are two ‘wolf dogs’ from Northern Ireland who play ‘direwolves’ in … Continue reading

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