Want to be an IGA postgrad rep?

Posted on 28th August 2015 by William the Bloody

From the International Gothic Association:

Our wonderful current reps Chloe Buckley and Laura Kremmel have come to the end of their term and we are looking for their replacements. It is a two-year position and involves facilitating monthly bloggers, keeping the facebook page active, and managing the twitter feed. You will also participate in the IGA Advisory Board, which meets once a year (online or at the IGA conference). You can also add things to the position, such as the postgrad pub night Chloe and Laura planned at the IGA conference.

Here’s how to apply:
Email a short statement about why you want to be a postgrad rep and what you’d do with the position to Angela Wright (a.h.wright@sheffield.ac.uk) and Catherine Spooner (c.spooner@lancaster.ac.uk) by September 10th. You must be a member of the IGA and have at least two years of postgrad work ahead of you to be eligible. Let us know if you have any questions!

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The Lycanthrope: A Werewolf Poem

Posted on 28th August 2015 by Sam George

OGOM members are wonderfully creative, Marcus wrote us a special story for the Bram Stoker Centenary event, and now Ivan Phillips has unearthed a rather splendid werewolf poem of his (see Bill’s post below). I like the reference to werewolf lore (i.e. drinking from the wolf footprint); Sabine Baring Gould anyone? Thanks Ivan ….really looking forward to your talk at the conference.

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Ivan Phillips, ‘The Lycanthrope;

Posted on 28th August 2015 by William the Bloody

Ivan Phillips, of the University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative Arts, has been involved with the OGOM Project from the beginning. He has written a powerful poem about werewolves here:

The Lycanthrope

Hypocrisy is woven of a fine small thread,
Subtler than Vulcan’s engine: yet, believe’t,
Your darkest actions: nay, your privat’st thoughts,
Will come to light. – The Duchess of Malfi

When babies start to vanish in broad daylight,
when there are whispers of invasion and plague
and the church has never been so full,

when the streets are nothing but belly and tongue
and the Devil’s been seen
for seven stormy nights on the trot

pissing into a paw-print in the graveyard by the pub –
then the old duke dons his finest robes, rides into the village
and declares that the paw-print’s been supped from.

He talks of witchery. Possession. Guilt. He leads a fiery mob
through ransacked farmyards to an out-house
where a stranger cowers in filth and sweating straw,

shiny with sores from head to foot.
The light’s bad, they’re tired and it’s hard to tell fur from dirt
or rag from limb

but in these shaggiest of dog days
a bloodshot eye is as sure a sign
as bristly palms or pointed ears, as red hair or a stammer.

So they tumble back to the village and the panic dies down.
A bad time is broken on a wheel,
a head lopped off, thrown to the crowd.

It knocks and bobs, skips from hand to hand
as the folk go wild, scrabbling for a hair from scalp or chin,
missing what’s twitching under the old duke’s skin.

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BBC Radio West Midlands interview

Posted on 28th August 2015 by William the Bloody

I am being interviewed about the Company of Wolves conference by Mollie Green on BBC West Midland Radio’s Breakfast Programme at about 7.10am tomorrow, so catch it if you can.

And Sam’s and Kaja’s newspaper interview with The Independent should be out tomorrow, too.

Kaja’s BBC interviews are already in the blog, so we’re accumulating a lot of coverage!

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Willis Goth Regier, ‘Grimm Beginnings’

Posted on 27th August 2015 by William the Bloody

An excellent review essay on the new Jack Zipes edition of the first edition of Grimms’ Tales and of his new book on the continuing influence of the tales. It contains an informed account of the history of successive editions and translations into English.

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There’s a Conference in the U.K. All About Werewolves

Posted on 27th August 2015 by William the Bloody

As you will have noticed, the Company of Wolves conference (billed as ‘the world’s first werewolf conference’!) has had an astonishing amount of press coverage. Inaccuracies and trivialisation easily creep into press reports of anything that has a sensational element–this latter being what grabs the readers. But I think this article from The Smithsonian is more intelligent than most and some thoughtful research has been done.

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Gothic Manchester Festival 2015, 23 October 2015, John Rylands Library, Manchester

Posted on 27th August 2015 by William the Bloody

The third Gothic Manchester Festival looks very exciting–music, art, events, films, Gothic reading, and a one-day conference (where I will be giving a paper). And it takes place in the beautiful neo-Gothic John Rylands Library.

Following the success of the past two years, the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies is delighted to welcome you to the third Gothic Manchester Festival. This year’s programme of events opens with the launch of an exhibition by the Manchester Gothic Arts Group. On Friday, amidst the gothic splendour of the John Rylands Library, Twisted Tales of the Weird presents a reading by esteemed weird authors, including the supremely talented MJ Harrison, followed by ArA – a Goth club night in a church. Saturday is devoted to a one-day conference at Number 70 Oxford Street (formerly Cornerhouse) on the theme ‘What Lies Beneath’ – in which authors and academics present their work on the horrific world that exists behind the surface of our lives. On Saturday evening, in collaboration with Grimm Up North, we are delighted to present a double bill of films introduced by Hollywood horror legend director Brian Yuzna. Sunday sees a tour of Manchester’s subterranean spaces in the morning, with the Cottonopolis Coglective presenting an afternoon of steampunk delights at the John Rylands Library. The festival closes on Sunday night at Hold Fast Bar in the Northern Quarter with a suitably subterranean pub quiz. Join us for an eclectic collection of entertaining, thought-provoking and occasionally downright disturbing events!

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What do you do at a werewolf conference?

Posted on 26th August 2015 by Sam George

Here’s What you do at a werewolf conference

according to Britain Weekly

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Hashtags and wolf cup cakes

Posted on 26th August 2015 by Sam George

carter

Another day at the coal face at Company of Wolves. Today I sorted the stock for the book signings for Marcus and Sir Chris and arranged the promotional material. We are getting advanced copies of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ before the official release date so that is exciting. I am looking forward to getting my signed copy. I also arranged for the delivery of  the werewolf model which has been specially made by one of our Creative Arts students, Florence, and is going to be on display in the foyer during the conference. Bewilderingly, I also got approached by a Halloween company who asked if I would like to officiate at their launch where they are planning to attempt a world record for the most people dressed as werewolves in one place!! All in days work at CoW. I also completed more work on my paper and began putting together a fact sheet for the wild boy trip…oh and we choose the images for the Red Riding Hood biscuits (so very fab) and there will be wolf cup cakes too! I am really hoping people will want to photograph the food because it is going to be very special indeed.

I tweeted some new news stories  (one aptly entitled ‘What do you do at a werewolf conference?) and we decided that anyone tweeting should use #CoW2015 so that all the tweets are on the same page. Invitations have gone out to some press who have expressed an interest in coming along and I think there is going to be a real buzz or should that be howl at the opening. We are compiling some special werewolf/wolf themed videos and music for the big screens too to show during registration.

Kaja was at the BL today grappling with her peer review and Bill is back in Manchester doing wonderful things with databases and spreadsheets so that everything is collated and logged for catering and bookings. More from the CoW offices tomorrow (though I hope to sneak off to work on my paper (don’t tell)). Really looking forward to launch day and seeing everyone…. it is going to be some wolf fest!!

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When the wolves come out of the walls

Posted on 25th August 2015 by Sam George

A crazy day here preparing for the conference. Kaja, Bill and I have been frantically exchanging messages, fielding hundreds of emails and sorting through the many werewolf novels that have been sent to us in the post. The afternoon was spent finalising the Peter the Wild Boy trip and giving an interview to the Independent (possibly out tomorrow). Between us I think we have taken just about every possible question on the werewolf (don’t ask). I will be summarising some of these lupine gems in my welcome talk! Seriously though things have really, really taken off and we’ve had global coverage with more to come over the next few days.
I spent the afternoon talking to the lovely Rev’d Gordon in Northchurch about our wild boy trip. He is very happy for us to picnic in the churchyard and will help us to find Peter’s grave and see the portrait and plaque inside the church. The story of Peter seems to have really captured the public’s imagination and our trip has been widely reported in the press. So much so that we now have two French reporters joining us on the coach!! Funny to think of French readers pondering over the significance of our graveyard picnic! I am speaking on Peter and other wolf children in my plenary so I’m delighted that this topic is suddenly so newsworthy. We now have filming going on at the event and a werewolf model created by one of our animation students on display. I just can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings….only a few days to go before the wolves come out of the walls….beyond exciting!!

Weeping Angel

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