Saturday, October 11 | 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Historic Camden – Education Center
222 Broad Street, Camden, SC 29020

This panel brings together three celebrated voices in contemporary fiction—Julia Elliott, Nathan Ballingrud, and Lee Mandelo—for a conversation on the role of the supernatural in Southern Gothic storytelling.

Ghosts, haunted houses, and strange weather are more than just atmosphere. In the hands of these writers, the uncanny becomes a way to explore grief, trauma, and identity, while grounding horror in real-world tensions. Through ghostly presences, unsettling landscapes, and eerie folklore, their work reimagines Gothic tropes for a modern South—where personal and collective hauntings overlap.

Topics will include subverting genre expectations, blending psychological depth with speculative elements, and drawing on regional mythology to create narratives that are as emotionally resonant as they are chilling.

Featured Panelists

Julia Elliott
Author of The Wilds and The New and Improved Romie Futch, Elliott is known for her vivid, surreal fiction that fuses grotesque beauty, dark humor, and Southern folklore with speculative science and myth.

Nathan Ballingrud
Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of North American Lake Monsters and Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell. His work explores monstrousness—both human and otherworldly—set against deeply Southern backdrops.

Lee Mandelo
Author of Summer Sons and The Woods All Black, Mandelo writes Southern Gothic fiction that weaves queer identity, generational violence, and the uncanny into stories rich with emotional and cultural weight.