Dalhousie Libraries partnered with the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia again this year to bring scary stories to Shirreff Hall. This year, local horror writers and creative writing students read their spookiest works to an eager crowd in the dimly lit Victorian Lounge.

L’nu’skw (Mi’kmaw) writer and author Tiffany Morris began the evening with a nightmarish tale of a festering and possessed house that transmutes its lodgers into dolls. Morris’ story,  Night in the Chrysalis from the collection Never Whistle at Night, set the stage for a thoroughly macabre lineup of stories and poetry.

Elliott Gish read her short story Tour, a darkly humorous narration of the morbid exploration of a house where a family met its tragic end. The listeners learned the gory details of the gruesome crime as the narrator navigated the house describing its rooms like a realtor selling to a hopeful buyer.

Sci-fi writer Brittni Brinn read Safe Passage from the anthology At the Lighthouse – a futuristic tale of a forlorn journey to a lighthouse that is expected to provide passage to a new life for a desperate and determined traveller but a dark twist delivers an unexpected fate.

Between each short story, creative writing students from Dalhousie and King’s shared their own works. Poetry and flash fiction were energetically read to the room by Tessie Doyle, Michelle Garcia-Burgos, and Liv Mazerolle.

Dal Libraries is committed to working locally with partners and communities to share knowledge, celebrate culture, and build capacity. This event is one of the ways the libraires work with community partners to celebrate local talent and art and connect with up-and-coming writers and creators from our Dal community.

About the Writers

Tiffany Morris is the author of the Ignyte, Indigenous Voices, Shirley Jackson, the Aurora award-nominated Green Fuse Burning (Stelliform Press, 2023), and the Elgin Award-winning horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in the Indigenous horror anthology Never Whistle at Night, as well as in Nightmare Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, and Apex Magazine among others.

Elliott Gish wants to creep you out. A writer and librarian from Nova Scotia, her work has appeared in The New Quarterly, Dark Matter Magazine, Wigleaf, the Dalhousie Review, and many others. Her debut novel, Grey Dog, was published by ECW Press this year. Elliott lives in Halifax with her partner and a small black cat named Mr. Raymond Parks.

Brittni Brinn writes from a tower and sometimes a cottage in Mi’kma’ki. Their scariest stories appear in At the Lighthouse (Eibonvale Press) and Your Flight Has Been Cancelled (Little Ghosts Books). Keep an eye or ear out for her weird novella Misplaced, coming out on November 1, 2024, with Little Ghosts Books.