New Gothic for Winter Nights

As the editors of wondrous indie Haunt have observed, Scotland has a stunning tradition of oral storytelling, from the firesides of the nation’s legendary storytelling families to the physical and virtual platforms of today’s narrative performers.

Scotland is also a place with a strange, longstanding affinity with that most chilling of genres: the Gothic. And so as the nights close in, here are some spine tinglers to keep you up!

Gothic fiction that has been toyed with, expanded and refashioned by writers like Jane Healey, Helen McClory and Fiona Mozley working in Scotland, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Jesmyn Ward in the US or Aoko Matsuda in Japan, Mohale Mashigo in South Africa, and far beyond.

Fresh forays by emerging talents can be found in Nyx's Queer Gothic, and Haunt;s Haunted Voices anthology - sumptuous collections that show the glorious scope and potential of the genre today.