Not all creativity heals, but sometimes it can bring a strange kind of peace. And even new ways of seeing and being in the world.


We invite you to a night of stories from Canberra authors about the unusual, difficult but  sometimes beautiful and transgressive wounds from caring for others. Of writing about illness and family loss. Doing 'awful things' and apparently getting away with it. Bearing witness to a world succumbing. And how the art of horror writing helps connect with audiences. With local music.


Come along to listen and join the discussion at Gang Gang cafe, 6:30pm WED 18th February 2026.

BOOK HERE

LOST SOULS MAGAZINE has returned for 2026!


To help start our second year of publishing macabre words, we’re hosting a night of stories and music from Canberra creatives featuring their stories about strange, dark and beautiful experiences of “care”, in its many forms.


'The Horror of Care' is part of the magazine's Macabre Dreams series and will be held:


6:30pm - 9pm, Wednesday 18th February (doors open 6pm)

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 who have explored “the horror of care” for what it reveals about relationships, society and the world, and the art of storytelling itself. With the current “renaissance” in horror publishing and broader public debates about care in a range of social contexts, we feel this is an apt time to hear from authors and artists about their often compelling insights.


The event features performers reading stories about the fears, anxieties and wonder from looking after others, whether that be family members, our neighbourhoods or ourselves. What these stories can reveal about the more difficult aspects of care, as well as what is beautiful or its grace. How it changes characters in fiction. What sorts of approaches and techniques of horror and similar forms of writing help to tell such stories.


Performances include readings from local authors of horror or dark writing, and a conversation panel about the processes and ideas inspiring their work, including how this connects them to a sense of place.


Readings will be accompanied by a solo music performance. Print copies of LOST SOULS Issue 02 will also be available for purchase. Posters and other artwork by Red Saunders.


ENTRY FEES AND TICKET BOOKINGS

General public:


$10 (entry fee)

Or

$25 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Magazine Issue 02)

Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild members:

$5 (entry fee)

Or

$20 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Magazine Issue 02)



Book tickets

https://events.humanitix.com/the-horror-of-care-readings-and-music



Line up

J. Ashley-Smith (writer)
Aaron Dries (writer)
Ben O'Mara (writer, researcher, Chief Spooky Officer - Lost Souls)
Kaaron Warren (writer)
Jenny Sawer (singer, musician)

Host: Fionn MacPherson (writer, editor)


Food, drinks and merchandise

Food and drink will be available for purchase from Gang Gang cafe.


LOST SOULS Issue 2, books and other work by artists will also be available.


LOST SOULS Issue 2 purchased with an event ticket can be picked up at the venue.



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 also feel that the growing popularity of horror and dark writing in a variety of forms, combined with broader public discussion of the challenges and need for care of children, the elderly, those unwell and others, is an important opportunity to share the work of Canberra creatives. To help to explore the experience of care and how dark stories can shed a strange light on care and celebrate the unique power of books, short stories and music, to reach audiences.


References

[1] M. Rapoport, “Frankenstein’s Daughters: on the Rising Trend of Women’s Body Horror in Contemporary Fiction,” Pub Res Q, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 619–633, 2020, doi: 10.1007/s12109-020-09761-x.


[2] B. Spratford, “HORROR RENAISSANCE: This spine-tingling season offers epic novels, retellings, and tropes made fresh,” Library Journal, vol. 150, no. 7, p. 20, 2025.


[3] B. Spratford, “FICTION SHOWS ITS ITS FANGS: Vampires stake a renewed claim, women’s stories and translated novels expand the genre, and psychological horror challenges tropes,” Library journal (1976), vol. 149, no. 7, p. 30, 2024.


[4] M. Edmundson, “Irish Women Writers and the Supernatural,” Edinburgh University Press, 2023. doi: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781399500555.003.0012.


[5] C. Belling, “The Living Dead: Fiction, Horror, and Bioethics,” Perspectives in biology and medicine, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 439–451, 2010, doi: 10.1353/pbm.0.0168.


[6] Haas, “Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Tooth’: Dentistry as Horror, the Imagination as a Shield,” Literature and medicine, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 132–156, 2015, doi: 10.1353/lm.2015.0003



Contact and more information

Ben O'Mara 


e: ben@lostsouls.net.au
w: lostsouls.net.au

Event: The Horror of Care - 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.

LOST SOULS

Copyright  Lost Souls Magazine 2025