The first International Gothic Reading Month (IGRM) is official. As a Gothic author, I invite you to journey through modern ghostly landscapes, cursed castles, and the dark chills of Gothic romantic mysteries for the month of January 2026 and every January to come.
Enter the red door of this castle and celebrate Gothic literature at the start of each new year. International Gothic Reading Month is sponsored by the Society for the Study of the American Gothic (SSAG), a scholarly organization devoted to advancing the study of the American Gothic through research, teaching, and publication.
Are you a reader of Gothic? An author, librarian, bookseller, publisher, editor, blogger, podcaster, teacher, or student of Gothic literature? Please join us during January to enter stories that—in the words of Mary Shelley—”speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror.”
Visit the IGRM website for details, a suggested reading list, promotional flyers, and how to participate in International Gothic Reading Month. Click here: https://americangothicsociety.com/international-gothic-reading-month/
This Gothic Reading Month event was initiated by the International Gothic Reading Month Committee Members, a group of authors, writers, readers, and Gothic enthusiasts:
Sponsorship: Jeffrey A. Weinstock, President and founder, Society for the Study of the American Gothic. Jeffrey is a professor of English at Central Michigan University, the Los Angeles Review of Books Associate Editor of horror, and founder and editor of the peer-reviewed journal American Gothic Studies. He is co-founder and past chair of the Modern Language Association’s Gothic Studies Forum. An author or editor of 33 books and over 100 essays on the Gothic, American literature, cult film, and pop culture, Jeffrey’s most recent book, The Horror Theory Reader, will be published by the University of Minnesota Press in early 2026.
Alexia Mandla Ainsworth. Alexia is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University. Her research centers on the “female gothic” genre. A speaker at numerous conferences on Gothic genre origins in modern films, podcasts, and video games, her most recent publication is on Dracula and the epistolary form and the genre-bending nature of mixed media in Gothic literature.
Barbara Beatie is a lecturer in the English Department at Sonoma State University. A researcher and poet, her writing has been published in Gothic Nature Journal V, Beyond Distance, Redemption: Stories Phoenix Out of the Silence and Then, and Sonoma: Stories of a Region and Its People.
Paula Cappa, IGRM Director. Paula is a published novelist and short story author of Gothic and supernatural mysteries: Draakensky, A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance (Crystal Lake Publishing), Sky Wolf, The Dazzling Darkness, Night Sea Journey, and Greylock (Crispin Books). In April of 2026, her novel Wolf Magick, Secret Mysteries of Draakensky will be released by Crystal Lake Publishing.
Ruthann Jagge is professionally published in many successful anthologies for Gothic, dark speculative, fantasy, folklore, mythology, and articles and reviews. She is co-author of the modern Gothic novel Delevan House, a novella, the soon to be released Southern Gothic novel Coeur Noir-Black Heart, and the sequel Crees Crossing. Ruthann has moderated dynamic panels on folklore at World Con in Glasgow, and is featured in numerous interviews discussing the creative process.
Carey Millsap-Spears. Carey is published poet and professor of English at Moraine Valley Community College. She is author of Star Trek Discovery and The Female Gothic: Tell Fear No (Lexington Books). Her scholarship also appears in Set Phasers to Teach: Star Trek in Research and Teaching, The Routledge Handbook of Star Trek, Strange Novel Worlds, Space: The Feminist Frontier, Queer Studies and Media and Popular Culture, Studies in Popular Culture, Fantastika, and Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies.
Dr. Arline Wilson is the creator of Lamplight Literature, an educational video series and podcast launching in 2026 that illuminates the intersections of Gothic literature, history, and spiritual trauma through rich storytelling. She holds a dual appointment as an English professor and Digital Humanities and Africana Studies Scholar for Special Collections in Morris Library at the University of Delaware. She is co-author of the forthcoming “Colored Convention Movement,” with John Ernest, in Oxford Bibliographies in African American Studies (Oxford University Press).
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