Writing the Occult: Creatures & Cryptids

Saturday 29 November, 2025
Starts 1pm UK / 9am ET
Early bird tickets are £35 until 2 November 2025, or £40 from 3 November. Sales end at midnight GMT on 28 November.

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.

Full speaker line-up:
Grady Hendrix, in conversation with Lauren McMenemy

Richard Freeman on his adventures in cryptozoology

V Castro on the Latinx creatures that inspire her work

Tiffani Angus, delivering a workshop on writing cryptids

Tiffany Morris, on Indigenous Canadian creatures and cultural appropriation

Kayleigh Dobbs on the eternal allure of the zombie

Alex Davis on the creatures of creepypasta

Hero Owen on werewolves as allegories

A W Earl on how creatures of myth and folklore become cryptids

Writing the Occult After Dark: Zoe Burgess on monster erotica

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.

Speaker bios and session details coming soon. Follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for announcements.