“The Uncanny & The Abject” Class Returns!

“The Uncanny & The Abject” Class Returns!

9-11am Saturday, June 14th, 2025 at STOKERCON 2025 in Stamford, CT "The Uncanny & The Abject in Horror Fiction" A course taught by Michael Arnzen for HORROR UNIVERSITY sponsored by Seton Hill University's MFA in Writing Popular Fiction Registration for my next Horror University course has opened up! This two hour workshop will unravel the psychological theories of the Uncanny and the Abject. Together, we will explore how authors frighten, disturb and disgust the reader through analysis and open discussion. The class will involve short writing activities that will allow you to explore and practice the different techniques writers summon when…
Live Horror U Class at StokerCon 24: “Catching the Reader by Surprise”

Live Horror U Class at StokerCon 24: “Catching the Reader by Surprise”

POST-CONVENTION UPDATE, 6/4/24: Unfortunately, this class will not be available online as a recorded lecture. If you attended the class at the con, know that the secret website for the course has been updated with extra materials! Just email me if you've forgotten it's location; otherwise, enjoy and stay in touch! Registration for my next Horror University course has opened up! "Catching the Reader by Surprise" will be a 2-hour online session covering strategies to keep your reader guessing, from building suspense in clever ways to crafting surprising plot twists, while taking the special considerations of the horror genre into…
New Class at Horror U: “Shifting Shapes”

New Class at Horror U: “Shifting Shapes”

Registration for my next Horror University course has opened up! "Shifting Shapes" will be a 2-hour online session focusing on strategies for depicting transformation. Visit https://horror-university.teachable.com or see my Events page for more details. The class runs LIVE online on 2/5/24 at 8pm est, but registrants can also view the recorded session and access secret shared materials afterward. (Look for my past Horror U sessions on "The Uncanny and The Abject" and "Treacherous Settings," while you're there! HWA members may qualify for discounts! DESCRIPTION: Hair sprouting from flesh, everywhere, as a man contorts into a terrifying wolf. Tentacles exploding from…
Raising the Dead Draft (& Other Fall Events)

Raising the Dead Draft (& Other Fall Events)

Take a quick gander at my events page, and you'll see that I'm lining up a number of readings, talks and writing workshops for the 2022 Harvest season... hope you're able to join me at one of them! I always love reading live. But here I want to highlight a one-hour writing workshop I'm running that is also part of an awesome book launch. From Oct 8th-10th, Raw Dog Screaming Press and AllAccessCon are hosting "Writing Poetry in the Dark" -- a unique event featuring a roster of top horror poets, all talking shop to help writers learn about the…
Kaiju Death Spiral: A Class Poetry eBook

Kaiju Death Spiral: A Class Poetry eBook

Happy National Poetry Month once again! This year, I'm sharing the work of students in my current undergraduate world literature course in Global Horror, where we're currently wrapping up the term at Seton Hill University. In that class, we studied everything from current folk horror novels to Serbian folk vampires. One week, we practiced Japanese poetic forms, inspired by our study of the Godzilla kaiju films, Junji Ito's classic horror manga, Uzumaki, and Jisei death poems. The results were so good, I compiled them into a fun and morbidly twisted ebook, called Kaiju Death Spiral, featuring a fantastic piece of…