.png){kind=icon}
-v10.png){kind=logo}
.png){kind=icon}
.png){kind=icon}
Are you a fan of strange tales? Enjoy feeling the sinister vibes from creepy short fiction? We’d love to see you at Spooky Stories for a night of fascinating yet disturbing short story readings, and a short musical performance, at Gang Gang cafe on WED 22nd October, 2025.
We're excited to be hosting a night with some of Canberra's great writers to hear them share strange tales of what haunts us – the spectres of the past, the horrors of the present, unsettling futures, the weird experiences of being human.
'Spooky Stories' is part of the magazine's Macabre Dreams series and will be held:
6:30pm - 9pm, Wednesday 22nd October
Gang Gang cafe (Shop4/2 Frencham Pl, Downer ACT 2602)
The night aims to help celebrate and promote the work of local artists and professionals creating “beautiful, strange and dark” work, with a focus on “spooky stories” in the lead up to Halloween in Canberra. The event features performers reading stories about what haunts us, the specters of people and things absent, about those moments of dread and creepiness - of seeing the sign in one’s imagination that says, “I’d turn back if I were you.” (Tuttle, 2020)
But some readings will also consider how spookiness can be infinitely variable: experiences that are strange, uncanny, weird and fantastic, far beyond more familiar ghost stories. Like the huanting feeling of working in an old building that has well out lived its purpose. Or living in a house soon to be demolished.
Readings will be complemented with a solo musical performance that similarly engages with the theme of spooky stories.
The night features readings of short fiction and a short musical set, including:
- strange tales
- suspense horror
- speculative futures
- original and cover songs with guitar and vocals.
The evening will conclude with an interative conversation with the performers about their work and spooky stories more generally.
ENTRY AND REGISTRATION
Entry is $5 or $15 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Issue 1) via Humanitix.
https://events.humanitix.com/spooky-stories-3k3u4es3
Line up
Americo Alvarenga (writer)
S.R. Underschultz (writer)
C.H. Pearce (writer/artist)
Julia Hood (singer/musician)
Host: Ben O’Mara (writer, researcher; Lost Souls 'Chief Spooky Officer')
Food, drinks and merchandise
Food and drink will be available for purchase from Gang Gang cafe.
Lost Souls Issue 1, music, books and other work by artists will also be available.
Lost Souls Issue 1 is available at a discounted price ($10) when purchased with an event ticket ($5). It can be picked up at the venue.
Entry and registration
Entry is $5 or $15 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Issue 1): via Humanitix.
Location and parking
Gang Gang (Shop4/2 Frencham Pl, Downer ACT 2602) is a cafe, bar and a live music venue
located in Downer Shops. The cafe is about a 10 minute drive from the middle of Canberra city, or 20 minutes by bicycle.
Parking is available in Downer Shops and along the ovals of Downer Playing Fields.
Why hold this event? Compelled to be disturbed and delighted
Many Canberrans and others across Australia are fascinated by dark, strange and beautiful arts. From horror novels, cyberpunk short stories, weird nonfiction and macabre poetry, to movies about the supernatural, witchy crafts, albums of beguiling and seductive rock and graphic novels about the monstrous and grotesque, we are primed to be creeped out. To be afraid, but to also listen, question and learn.
Many of us like to experience the gothic, uncanny and fantastic as a way of making sense of the past and present. Perhaps so that we can reveal unsettling truths about a world that often feels like it teeters on the edge of destruction. Or know more about the perils and joys of daily life. And, simply, to find pleasure in creativity and the mystery of the unknown.
Despite such interest, there are few regular events featuring local artists with their own unique spin on the beautiful and dark arts. This is a unique opportunity given Canberra has a strong and diverse group of artists who shed a bizarre and illuminating light on a variety of issues and topics. Their work contributes insights about identity, memory, love, politics, technology, survival and so much else of what it means to live in the 21st century. Often, with grace, style, wonder and infectious black humour.
We hope to help share the work of many talented artists and increase their opportunities to engage with audiences offline as well as online. We would like to have an enjoyable night of conversation about the dark and beautiful arts with great food and music. We also feel that the October and Halloween period in Canberra is a valuable time to explore “spookiness” and what it feels to be haunted as we celebrate the work of local artists.
References
[1] Ann. VanderMeer and Jeff. VanderMeer, “The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories.” Atlantic Books, London, 2010.
[2] J. B. Tuttle, “Dancing in the Ruins: Toward an Affect-Narratology of the Spooky,” Journal of the fantastic in the arts, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 360–513, 2020.
[3] R. Morrison, Carol Margaret Davison, and Monica Germanà, “‘The Singular Wrought Out into the Strange and Mystical’: Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine and the Transformation of Terror,” Edinburgh University Press, 2017, pp. 129–141.
[4] Clive. Bloom, The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic, 1st ed. 2020. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-33136-8.
[5] Fisher, M. The Weird and the Eerie.Watkins (2017)
Contact and more information
Ben O'Mara
Sophie Hoogewerff
e: lostsoulsmagazine@gmail.com
w: lostsouls.net.au
Event: Spooky Stories - An Evening of Haunting Readings and Music
REVIEW
Ali Alizadeh
January 2025
Pascal Plantea's film Les Chambres Rogues (Red Rooms) takes viewers on a terrifying journey into mental spaces as dark as the horrors of the dark web.
REVIEW
Phoebe Lupton
December 2024
Naomi Klein's Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World draws on memoir-cultural criticism to reveal a disturbing lack of kindness in the era of misinformation.
More on the blog
Lost Souls Magazine in print and online is proudly independent.
We are based in Melbourne and Canberra.
The design and development of this website was based on a scoping of best practice and relevant examples. Work included websites for Heat Magazine, Meanjin, Overland, The New Yorker, Rue Morgue, Dark Mountain, The Dark and Weird Studies.
We acknowledge, recognize and pay our respect to the Ancestors, Elders and families of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung of the Kulin who are the traditional owners of lands where we work and live in Victoria, and the Ngunnawal who are the traditional custodians of land in the Australian Capital Territory.
-v11.png){kind=logo}
