Next up at Writing the Occult...

Belief

What can following in faith make humans think & do?

    It’s one of the few topics that can polarise a population: do you proselytise, or do you run from any hint of religious discussion? But belief is not just about which sky captain you think is better than others; it’s about the reasons we do what we do, why we blindly follow others—and why we don’t follow at all. What can belief make us humans do?

    Join us at Writing the Occult where we venture into forbidden territory. Yes, we’re going to talk about beliefs. What’s it like to live in a cult? Why do people get swept away by charismatic leaders? Where do conspiracy theories come from? And what makes humans believe in the first place? Let’s ask if the truth really is out there.

    • Early bird tickets are £35+booking fee until 16 August

    • Regular-priced tickets are £40+booking fee from 17 August

    • Sales close midnight on 5 September

    Our believers are...

    • Dr Francis Young, religious scholar and author

    • Lilith Dorsey M.A., voodoo priestess and magickal practitioner

    • Wole Talabi, author

    • Deborah Hyde, author, presenter, skeptic

    • Brandon R. Grafius, author and religious scholar

    • Ella Snyder, writer, poet, 2 x cult survivor

    • Dr S Jonathon O'Donnell, political and religious scholar

    • Jordan S. Carroll, writer and academic

    • Sarah Elliott, writer, poet and editor

    • Chris Hawton, fandom podcaster and life-long Ancient Rome fanboy

    Meet them ⬇️

    Dr Francis Young

    Francis Young studied at Cambridge University and holds a PhD in History; he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and tutors for Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education. He is also a Lay Canon of St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Francis is the author, co-author or editor of 24 books about the history of religion and belief, most recently Silence of the Gods (2025), Paganism Persisting (2024) and Twilight of the Godlings (2023).

    Lilith Dorsey

    Lilith Dorsey M.A., hails from many magickal traditions, including Afro-Caribbean, Celtic, and Indigenous American spirituality. Their traditional education focused on Plant Science, Anthropology, and Film at the University of R.I, New York University, and the University of London, and their magickal training includes numerous initiations in Santeria also known as Lucumi, Haitian Vodoun, and New Orleans Voodoo.

    Lilith Dorsey is also a Voodoo Priestess and in that capacity has been doing successful magick since 1991 for patrons, is editor/publisher of Oshun-African Magickal Quarterly, filmmaker of the experimental documentary Bodies of Water :Voodoo Identity and Tranceformation,’ and choreographer/performer for jazz legend Dr. John’s “Night Tripper” Voodoo Show. They have long been committed to providing accurate and respectful information about the African Traditional Religions and are proud to be a published Black author of such titles as Voodoo and African Traditional Religion, 55 Ways to Connect to Goddess, The African-American Ritual Cookbook, Love Magic, the bestselling Orishas, Goddesses and Voodoo Queens and the award winning Water Magic. Keep a lookout for the Tarot Every Witch Way now available wherever books are sold.

    Wole Talabi

    Wole Talabi is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon, which was nominated for the Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy award and several other major awards. His short fiction has appeared in places like Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and The Africa Risen anthology and is collected in the books Convergence Problems and Incomplete Solutions.

    Wole also been a finalist for the Hugo, Nommo, BSFA, Sidewise, Ignyte and Crawford awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing. He has edited five anthologies including Africanfuturism: An Anthology and Mothersound: The Sauútiverse Anthology. He likes scuba diving, elegant equations, and oddly shaped things. He currently lives and works in Perth, Australia. Find him at wtalabi.wordpress.com and at @wtalabi online.

    Deborah Hyde

    Deborah Hyde is an author, presenter and producer. She wants to know why people believe in the supernatural, and uses psychology, cultural anthropology, history and folklore to shed light on this intractable strand of human nature. She has written for periodicals such as The Guardian and The Fortean Times and has contributed material to book anthologies such as Palgrave Macmillan’s Werewolf Legends.

    For ten years, Deborah was Editor-in-Chief of the Brirish magazine The Skeptic and is a fellow of The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. She makes frequent TV appearances, being a regular contributor to Strange Evidence and Mysteries at the Museum, and has presented sceptical insights in some of BBC iPlayer’s most successful podcasts including Uncanny, The Battersea Poltergeist and Lucy Worsley’s Lady Swindlers.Deborah’s speaking career has taken her from Las Vegas to New York City, from Wroclaw, Poland to Sofia, Bulgaria. She regularly hosts events for Conway Hall, the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world, and for Fortean London’s special annual events there.

    Brandon R. Grafius

    Brandon R. Grafius is associate professor of biblical studies and academic dean at Ecumenical Theological Seminary, Detroit. His work focuses on the intersection of religion and horror, exploring the ways that these two areas are both ways of asking the same questions. He is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters, and the author of Lurking Under the Surface: Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us. His new book, Sacred by the Bible: The Roots of Horror in Scripture will be available in October from Morehouse Publishing.

    Ella Snyder

    Ella Snyder is a poet, interdisciplinary creative, and speaker. She holds an MFA in Poetry and Literary Translation from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her poems have appeared in Fur-Lined Ghettos and The Mountain Laurel. Her work builds worlds which give surreal space for the hellish, humorous, and healing. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her partner and two dogs.

    Dr S. Jonathon O'Donnell

    S. Jonathon O'Donnell is the author of Passing Orders: Demonology and Sovereignty in American Spiritual Warfare (Fordham University Press, 2021) and an expert in the politics of the contemporary Christian right. Their research combines religious studies and sociology with the tools of literary theory and continental philosophy, aiming to both understand reactionary political and religious thought and chart a potential path beyond them.

    As a result, they have written widely on topics such as Islamophobia, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, and anti-LGBT+ ideologies. Their work can be found in academic journals like Ethnic and Racial Studies, Patterns of Prejudice, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, as well as in more general publications such as The Conservation and History Today.

    Jordan S. Carroll

    Jordan S. Carroll is the author of Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) and Reading the Obscene: Transgressive Editors and the Class Politics of US Literature (Stanford University Press, 2021), which won the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars. He received his PhD in English Literature from the University of California, Davis. Carroll's writing has appeared in American Literature, Post*45, The Nation, Polygon, Kaleidotrope, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He works as a writer and educator in the Pacific Northwest.

    Sarah Elliott

    Sarah Elliott is a Nottingham-based writer, poet and self-published author (Warrior Wisdom Sun 2022, United Under One Sun 2023). Sarah is the interview coordinator for the Horror Tree website and an assistant editor for Trembling With Fear. Her work has been published in various print and online publications, and her articles and guest blog posts have featured on the Horror Tree and British Fantasy Society websites.

    Currently, Sarah is busy writing a Tarot-inspired collection of flash fiction, short prose and poetry. She is building a community within The Imaginarium, her Substack newsletter offering. Sarah’s neurodivergent brain lights up when exposed to themes including sci-fi, fantasy, history, Tarot, the supernatural — and cats!

    Chris Hawton

    Chris Hawton is a writer and serial community volunteer with a life-long addiction to Ancient Rome. The south London half of the All-New Adventures of the Doctor Who Book Club Podcast presenting team, he loves speculative fiction in all its forms, with a particular interest in the weirder side of sci-fi. He’s also been known to give guided tours of Mithraic temples while on holiday - purely by accident, because people looked lost and he likes to share his passion.

    Your peripheral vision is always filled with something you’re not quite sure you really saw. The human that stands where an animal was a second ago. The creature that’s really far too hairy to be human but looks like it should be. The stuff of legends and nightmares. These are the creatures that walk, fly, crawl, and appear among us. But what are they really?
    Join us at Writing the Occult in November where we’ll peer into the murky world of creatures and cryptids. We’re not just seeking Bigfoot or Nessie or Mothman here; we’re searching the back countries for those undiscovered entities that might just be real. Plus, we’ll look at the creatures of folklore and mythology that have cast a spell over us all—what could be the next hot new take on the werewolf, the shapeshifter, the troll, the centaur… Let’s discover what’s really out there.

    Speakers and full schedule to come.

    Writing the Occult is a boutique series of events brought to you by the Society of Ink Slingers, in partnership with Alex Davis Events. Our approach is to bring together the fiction world with folklore and academia to bring a well-rounded view to a specific area of interest to both speculative fiction writers and those with a hankering for the esoteric.
    Follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for announcements.

    © Society of Ink Slingers, 2024. All rights reserved.

    Writing the Occult: Relics
    10 May 2025
    Featuring: Cat Irving, John J Johnston, Ally Wilkes, Rebecca Stone Gordon, Steve Toase, John Buglass, and Jon Dear.

    Writing the Occult: The Uncanny
    18 January 2025
    Featuring: Dr Elizabeth Dearnley, Zebib K. Abraham, E. Saxey, Dr Vicky Brewster, Dr Steph Lay, and Chris Hawton

    Writing the Occult: Hauntology
    30 November 2024
    Featuring: Evelyn Hollow, Professor Robert Edgar, Adam S. Leslie, Dr Icy Sedgwick, Lindz McLeod, TC Parker, Mina Ikemoto Ghosh, and Robert P. Ottone.

    Writing the Occult: Connection to Land
    15 June 2024
    Featuring: Ally Wilkes, Eve Smith, Caroline Wise, Dr Kevan Manwaring, Tiffany Morris, Xan van Rooyen, Akintoba Kalejaye, Penny Billington, Kerry Hadley-Price, Lindz McLeod, Shona Kinsella, Renan Bernardo, Paul Hardisty, Lisa Brideau, and Lindsey Trout Hughes

    Writing the Occult: The Fae
    6 April 2024
    Featuring: Dr Elizabeth Dearnley, Gabriela Houston, Mark Norman, Morgan Daimler, Villimey Mist, Yvette Tan, Somto Ihezue, Avra Margariti, Yve Chairez, Khaya Maseko, Tanya Akrofi, Chinelo Onwualu, Komal Salman, and Xueting C. Ni

    Writing the Occult: Ritual
    27 January 2024
    Featuring: Tracy Fahey, Dr Adam Scovell, Lee Murray, Eden Royce, Dr Helen Frisby, LMK Sheppard, Robert P. Ottone, Stephanie Ellis, Kev Harrison, Lindsey Trout Hughes

    Writing the Occult: Vampires
    28 October 2023
    Featuring: Jewelle Gomez, Deborah Hyde, Dr Sam George, Scott J Moses, Beverley Lee, Nicole Eigener, Katalina Watt, Dawn Kurtagich, A.W. Earl, Erica Robert Pallo, A.R. James, Rebecca Wojturska

    Writing the Occult: Witches
    12 August 2023
    Featuring: Alice Tarbuck, Claire Askew, Stacey Thomas, Chelsey Pippin Mizzi, Tiffani Angus, and Lauren McMenemy