StokerCon 2025

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

As a poet, words are like gold. With so many lines, or so few, a poet must understand the weight each word has on every line. The goal of this workshop is to examine word choice, tone, and rhythm by looking at both classic and modern examples from Milton to Shelley to Lovecraft to Ginsberg. Dark poetry as a genre is comparatively young tracing its roots back to Edgar Allan Poe, so the materials students will review will stretch from classical material to modern sources. This will be an active and engaged class with discussion and analysis. The outcome of this course is for students to understand when to use specific words, and how they can modulate their own poetic voice to grow as poets and writers. 

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."  

This course delves into the five key elements that make Jordan Peele’s films both visually and narratively groundbreaking. Through the lens of "String Theory," we explore how characters react under pressure and how these moments shift their axis. "Point of View, Point Askew" examines how characters’ perceptions are upended, creating new narrative possibilities. "Family Focus" reveals the impact of generational behaviors on character arcs and outcomes. "Call and Response" analyzes the dynamic interplay between protagonist and antagonist, highlighting audience engagement and investment. Finally, "Boom, Splat!" unpacks the climactic finish, showing how hidden Easter eggs reframe our understanding of the story, offering layered interpretations and endless rewatchability. Gain the tools to analyze and apply Peele’s storytelling techniques, enrich narratives with multidimensional characters and intricate plots, master audience engagement, integrate complex themes, and draft impactful endings that encourage lasting impressions and multiple interpretations.

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

Learn how to use the “hero's journey” template to write epic horror fiction! Storytellers have been using the “hero’s journey” pattern in tales for thousands of years, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Star Wars. It’s a tried-and- true technique, one horror writers can use too, but with its own deliciously dark spin. Topics covered will include: The “hero’s journey.” How the horror “hero’s Journey” is different. The twelve stages of the horror “hero’s Journey.” The nine story outcomes of the horror “hero’s Journey.” Techniques for combining different story outcomes. How you can apply the horror “hero’s Journey” to your own stories. You’ll write several exercises exploring different aspects of the horror “hero’s Journey.”

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

Magic realism conjures the imagery of Frida Kahlo and Henri Rousseau and is something Salman Rushdie calls “a newish name for a very old thing.” Propelled across the literary world by Latin American writers of the 1950s, magic realism has deep, dark roots for storytellers that tangle with colonialism, disobedience, and subversion. Magic Realism for Rebels reintroduces this genre favorite through the horror lens with writing prompts along its elements, contours and many invitations. Respectfully, we’ll enter where personal and wider histories converge in kitchen wisdom, folklore, and social contemporary messaging.

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

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 triggering revulsion or conjuring dread.

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

Learn how to craft horror stories that linger in readers' minds by developing unsettling characters, structuring suspenseful narratives, and mastering pacing techniques that sustain tension. This session will explore advanced storytelling strategies to build dread, subvert expectations, and create endings that leave a lasting impact. Whether you write supernatural, psychological, or cosmic horror, you’ll gain the tools to make your stories truly unforgettable.

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

Cosmic horror looks beyond humanity to the outermost reaches of the cosmos to explore dark ideas and themes that dwarf earthly existence. It often focuses on inhuman entities or forces that dwarf the whole of humankind and cast it into utter insignificance. Often nihilistic, fatalistic, and bleak, cosmic horror offers unique opportunities for exploring the human condition and what makes human life valuable. This course will examine tropes in cosmic horror and techniques for establishing the grounded settings, well-developed characters, and troubling themes that make for effective cosmic horror stories.

This is a separately ticketed event. Tickets may be purchased through the Registration portal. Click Get Tickets and scroll down to options labeled "Horror University" or "HU."

Horror offers endless opportunities to create memorable prose that will spray, seep, and ooze right off the page. “Writing the Beautiful Macabre” is a workshop aimed to help writers infuse rich descriptions into their twisted prose while balancing the delicate line between the poetic and the superfluous. Together, we will review the differences between poetic prose vs. purple prose, engage in discussions on the subjectivity that comes along with poetic descriptions in exposition, and complete exercises that will add unique flavor to one’s writing. Through the examples and activities in class, you’ll learn how to wield the poetic as a powerful tool to create lush moments in horror, and to better engage readers through imagery that explores the senses.