Name: Combating Loneliness in the Writing Profession
Start: 2025-06-13T10:00:00-0400
End: 2025-06-13T10:45:00-0400

Welcome to the premiere horror literary convention presented by the Horror Writers Association. Registration for StokerCon 2025 is now available! This year the convention is being hosted by the city of Stamford, Connecticut, at the Hilton Stamford Hotel and Executive Meeting Center. We’re taking over from June 12th through the 15th, 2025.

Friday June 13, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EDT

Aspen 2

As we fuel both creativity and resilience, so much of our work unfolds in seclusion. We need communities for support and to stay informed in a rapidly changing field. Join these writers for a conversation on how they manage loneliness and establish connection.
--Our best strategies for combating loneliness in the writing profession
--Explore the anthology experience as editors/authors seeking connection
--Special events, conventions, readings, writing groups
--Overcoming geography and using tech
--Good manners and mind, body, spirit takeaways

Moderators

Jamal Hodge

CEO, Hodge Cinema

JAMAL HODGE is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and writer from Queens NYC who has won over 80 awards with screenings at Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance, Cannes, and others. He directed the first season of Investigation Discovery Channel’s ‘Primal Instinct’ and is a Producer... Read More →

Speakers

Crystal O’Leary-Davidson (C. O. Davidson)

Writer and Teacher

Crystal’s work has appeared in Pseudopod, Vastarien, Cemetery Gates and in various horror anthologies. She co-edited MONSTERS OF FILM, FICTION, AND FABLE and is a founding member of the Atlanta chapter of the HWA. She teaches writing, the Gothic, and horror at Middle Georgia State... Read More →

Mark Matthews

Mark Matthews is a Shirley Jackson Award Finalist, a graduate of the University of Michigan, and a licensed professional counselor. He is the author of On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises, Milk-Blood, and The Hobgoblin of Little Minds. He also edited, published, and contributed... Read More →

Lauren Elise (L. E.) Daniels

Editor, Author, Poet, HWA Wellness Committee, Brisbane Writers Workshop

A Bram Stoker Awards® finalist, co-chair for the HWA Mental Health Initiative with Mark Matthews, and Rhode Islander living in Australia, Lauren Elise (L. E.) Daniels has worked in publishing since '92. An Emerson College MFA grad, she's edited over 140+ titles, including the Aurealis... Read More →

Geneve Flynn

Editor and author

Geneve Flynn is a speculative fiction editor, author, and poet. Winner of two Bram Stoker Awards and the Shirley Jackson, Aurealis, and Brave New Weird Awards; recipient of the 2022 Queensland Writers Fellowship. Her work has been nominated and short/longlisted for the British Fantasy... Read More →

Katherine Silva

Author and EIC, Strange Wilds Press

Katherine Silva is an ace Maine horror author, a connoisseur of coffee, and victim of cat shenanigans. Her favorite flavors of the genre mix grief and existentialism which she combines with her love of the New England wilderness in her works. She is a three-time Maine Literary Award... Read More →

Friday June 13, 2025 10:00am - 10:45am EDT
Aspen 2

Convention Event

StokerCon 2025