Description
For centuries, queer people, women and disabled bodies have been cast as unnatural, hysterical and excessive and made the very essence of horror. But what happens when we reclaim the monster?
Bestselling authors Lucy Rose (The Lamb), Jessie Elland (The Ladie Upstairs), and Charlotte Paradise (Overspill) join us for a fierce, immersive conversation on the gothic genre tradition as a battleground for bodies that refuse to behave.
Together, we’ll explore how gothic fiction turns stigma into power, rage into art and otherness into defiance. From bodily transformation to social exile, the gothic exposes the violence of ableism and patriarchy and dares to imagine survival beyond them.
Dark, unsettling and unapologetically political, this event asks: who gets to be human and who benefits from calling the rest of us monstrous?
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About the Author
Lucy Rose
Lucy Rose is a Cumbrian writer of folktales and fables whose fiction, non-fiction and films have reached international audiences. A Forbes Under 30, Books Are My Bag Fiction Award shortlistee and Nota Bene Award finalist, she is the author of The Lamb, a Sunday Times bestselling debut published by W&N and Harper. The novel was named a 2025 standout by Foyles, Cosmopolitan, Spotify, Goodreads and NetGalley.
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