MIS
KA
TON
IC
Institute of
Horror Studies
Speakers
Speakers
Tenebrous Kate
Tenebrous Kate is a New Jersey-based writer and artist whose work explores her long-standing fascination with all things dark, fantastical, and forbidden. She is the co-host of the literary podcast Bad Books for Bad People and has issued limited-run publications under her micro-publishing imprint Heretical Sexts. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications including Heathen Harvest, Occult Rock, Slutist, and Ultra Violent Magazine. She has created artwork for a variety of clients ranging from boutique perfumier Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab to German black metal band Porta Nigra. Kate has hosted retro screenings at Alamo Drafthouse and has appeared in pop culture variety shows including Kevin Geeks Out, Meet the Lady, and Bonnie and Maude. Her long-running blog, Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, cataloged her encounters with offbeat cinema, literature, and art.
Biographic Note
Tenebrous Kate is a New Jersey-based writer and artist whose work explores her long-standing fascination with all things dark, fantastical, and forbidden. She is the co-host of the literary podcast Bad Books for Bad People and has issued limited-run publications under her micro-publishing imprint Heretical Sexts. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications including Heathen Harvest, Occult Rock, Slutist, and Ultra Violent Magazine. She has created artwork for a variety of clients ranging from boutique perfumier Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab to German black metal band Porta Nigra. Kate has hosted retro screenings at Alamo Drafthouse and has appeared in pop culture variety shows including Kevin Geeks Out, Meet the Lady, and Bonnie and Maude. Her long-running blog, Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire, cataloged her encounters with offbeat cinema, literature, and art.
Miriam Kent
Miriam Kent is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on adaptation and representation in films based on Marvel superhero comics. She has published widely on the cultural significance of superheroes. Her first book, Women in Marvel Films (2021, Edinburgh University Press), examines portrayals of women in Marvel film adaptations, linking these to wider issues to do with feminism and gender politics.
Biographic Note
Miriam Kent is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on adaptation and representation in films based on Marvel superhero comics. She has published widely on the cultural significance of superheroes. Her first book, Women in Marvel Films (2021, Edinburgh University Press), examines portrayals of women in Marvel film adaptations, linking these to wider issues to do with feminism and gender politics.
David Kerekes
David Kerekes is a co-founder of the publishing house Headpress. He is co-author of the books Killing for Culture (1994), revised and updated as Killing for Culture: From Edison to Isis — A New History of Death on Film (2016), and See No Evil: Banned Films and Video Controversy (2001). He is the author of Sex Murder Art: The Films of Jörg Buttgereit (1994) and has written extensively on popular culture. His meditation on southern Italian Diaspora and folklore, Mezzogiorno, was published in 2012. www.worldheadpress.com
Biographic Note
David Kerekes is a co-founder of the publishing house Headpress. He is co-author of the books Killing for Culture (1994), revised and updated as Killing for Culture: From Edison to Isis — A New History of Death on Film (2016), and See No Evil: Banned Films and Video Controversy (2001). He is the author of Sex Murder Art: The Films of Jörg Buttgereit (1994) and has written extensively on popular culture. His meditation on southern Italian Diaspora and folklore, Mezzogiorno, was published in 2012. www.worldheadpress.com
Jack Ketchum
Jack Ketchum (1946 – 2018) is the pseudonym for a former actor, singer, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk — a former flower child and baby boomer who figures that in 1956 Elvis, dinosaurs and horror probably saved his life. His first novel, Off Season, prompted the Village Voice to publicly scold its publisher in print for publishing violent pornography. He personally disagrees but is perfectly happy to let you decide for yourself. His short story The Box won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from the HWA, his story Gone won again in 2000 — and in 2003 he won Stokers for both best collection for Peaceable Kingdom and best long fiction for Closing Time. He has written eleven novels, the latest of which are Red, Ladies’ Night, and The Lost. His stories are collected in The Exit At Toledo Blade Boulevard, Broken on the Wheel of Sex, and Peaceable Kingdom. His novella The Crossings was cited by Stephen King in his speech at the 2003 National Book Awards. (Photo by Steve Thornton) www.jackketchum.net
Biographic Note
Jack Ketchum (1946 – 2018) is the pseudonym for a former actor, singer, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk — a former flower child and baby boomer who figures that in 1956 Elvis, dinosaurs and horror probably saved his life. His first novel, Off Season, prompted the Village Voice to publicly scold its publisher in print for publishing violent pornography. He personally disagrees but is perfectly happy to let you decide for yourself. His short story The Box won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from the HWA, his story Gone won again in 2000 — and in 2003 he won Stokers for both best collection for Peaceable Kingdom and best long fiction for Closing Time. He has written eleven novels, the latest of which are Red, Ladies’ Night, and The Lost. His stories are collected in The Exit At Toledo Blade Boulevard, Broken on the Wheel of Sex, and Peaceable Kingdom. His novella The Crossings was cited by Stephen King in his speech at the 2003 National Book Awards. (Photo by Steve Thornton) www.jackketchum.net
Mikel J. Koven
Mikel J Koven is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Film Studies at the University of Worcester. He is the author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (2006), Film, Folklore & Urban Legends (2008), and Blaxploitation Cinema (2010). He frequently publishes on topics about the relationship between folklore and horror cinema.
Biographic Note
Mikel J Koven is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Film Studies at the University of Worcester. He is the author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (2006), Film, Folklore & Urban Legends (2008), and Blaxploitation Cinema (2010). He frequently publishes on topics about the relationship between folklore and horror cinema.
Lisa Kröger
Lisa Kröger is the co-author of Monster, She Wrote and the forthcoming Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, as well as co-host of the Know Fear and Monster, She Wrote podcasts. She’s won the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award. Her work has been featured in Time magazine, The New York Times, Book Page, and Rue Morgue. She’s contributed fiction and nonfiction to Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road, EcoGothic, The Encyclopedia of the Vampire, and Horror Literature through History. Her essay collections include Shirley Jackson: Influences and Confluences and Spectral Identities: The Ghosted and the Ghostly in Film and Literature. Her newest short fiction will be out soon in Cemetery Dance magazine. Lisa is an active member of the Horror Writer's Association and a core member of the NYX Horror Collective. With NYX, she produced 13 Minutes of Horror, a short film festival for women filmmakers, which streamed on Shudder.
Biographic Note
Lisa Kröger is the co-author of Monster, She Wrote and the forthcoming Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult, as well as co-host of the Know Fear and Monster, She Wrote podcasts. She’s won the Bram Stoker Award and the Locus Award. Her work has been featured in Time magazine, The New York Times, Book Page, and Rue Morgue. She’s contributed fiction and nonfiction to Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road, EcoGothic, The Encyclopedia of the Vampire, and Horror Literature through History. Her essay collections include Shirley Jackson: Influences and Confluences and Spectral Identities: The Ghosted and the Ghostly in Film and Literature. Her newest short fiction will be out soon in Cemetery Dance magazine. Lisa is an active member of the Horror Writer's Association and a core member of the NYX Horror Collective. With NYX, she produced 13 Minutes of Horror, a short film festival for women filmmakers, which streamed on Shudder.
Tugce Kutlu
Tugce Kutlu completed her undergraduate education in Radio, Television and Film as a valedictorian at Ankara University, received another BA in International Relations from Anadolu University. She completed her MA in Film Studies at University College London (UCL) under a scholarship, wrote her dissertation on grief in the 21st-Century horror films supervised by Professor Susanne Kord at UCL and was awarded a Distinction. She is currently writing her thesis on the 21st-century Turkish cinema and power relations for her second MA at Ankara University. Her works I am not Carrie: Rebellious Girls of Horror Cinema’s New Era and The rule of the weird: power relations in the films of Yorgos Lanthimos have been published by academic journals. She has been to numerous academic conferences, pressenting her work. She is currently doing her PhD at Ankara University and she is a graduate teaching assistant at the same university.
Biographic Note
Tugce Kutlu completed her undergraduate education in Radio, Television and Film as a valedictorian at Ankara University, received another BA in International Relations from Anadolu University. She completed her MA in Film Studies at University College London (UCL) under a scholarship, wrote her dissertation on grief in the 21st-Century horror films supervised by Professor Susanne Kord at UCL and was awarded a Distinction. She is currently writing her thesis on the 21st-century Turkish cinema and power relations for her second MA at Ankara University. Her works I am not Carrie: Rebellious Girls of Horror Cinema’s New Era and The rule of the weird: power relations in the films of Yorgos Lanthimos have been published by academic journals. She has been to numerous academic conferences, pressenting her work. She is currently doing her PhD at Ankara University and she is a graduate teaching assistant at the same university.
