WriteAngles Conference

Ghosts and hauntings are the most common tropes in the horror genre. From Casper the Friendly Ghost to The Bent Kneck Lady from the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, inspired by Shirley Jackson’s novel of the same title, ghosts help us imagine and understand Life after Death. Ghosts are metaphors for grief, loss, guilt, and the past as well. In Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel, Beloved, the ghost named Beloved represents the psychological aftermath of slavery. Sethe is haunted by the trauma of her past and the murder of her daughter; her grief, loss, and guilt materializes into Beloved. Ghosts aren’t only visual apparitions they can also manifest as memories and scars. As for hauntings, they’re a bit different. A haunting is when a ghost or spirit attaches itself to a physical object or place for example it could be a mansion like in Haunted Mansion (2003), a hotel like in The Shining (1980), or a doll like Annabell. Metaphorically, hauntings refers to something that lingers emotionally and psychologically. In this generative and interactive workshop we’ll read and briefly discuss excerpts from popular ghost stories and hauntings, then write in response to prompts designed to explore grief, guilt, and other things that linger at the back of our minds.