The Hauntings Literary Tour

Oct 28, 2025 7:00pm-9:00pm

Studio Theater, Blaisdell Hall

October 28, 2025, 7:30 PM 
Free

Haunted forests, gothic castles, Ouija boards, spirits, phantoms, and things that go bump in the night. Throughout literary history, audiences and authors have been captivated by ghosts, whether they be frightening or benevolent, literal or metaphorical. Just in time for Halloween, a group of genre-bending authors with new middle grade, young adult, and adult novels from Regal House will share excerpts from their work, talk about their writing processes, and offer strategies for writing haunted stories. A few copies of their books will be available for purchase and signing.

Elizabeth Costello’s The Good War (January 2025): A mother and daughter in mid-century America pursue art, science, and autonomy while wrestling with the continued presence in their lives of their deceased husband/father, who was a prisoner of war in the Philippines. (Historical/Literary Fiction)

Elizabeth Costello’s poetry and prose have appeared in venues including, Lithub, Fourteen Hills, Crab Orchard Review, SF Weekly, 7x7, and in her poetry chapbook RELIC. She grew up in Buffalo, NY, went to college in New York City, and then moved around a lot before settling for many years in the Bay Area. In 2021 she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she plans to stay. She is grateful that she was able to take her job as an editor for UC Berkeley with her. With Portland painter and Soliloquy fine arts gallery owner, Ruth Meijier, she co-founded the Ekphraestival, a collaboration among West Coast poets and visual artists that culminates in exhibitions and readings in the spring. The Good War is her first novel. www.elizabethscostello.com

Carolyn Korsmeyer’s Riddle of Spirit and Bone (February 2025): A skeleton discovered buried beneath a city sidewalk leads a group of archaeologists to the 19th century spiritualist movement and the journey of three women seeking answers from beyond the grave. (Historical/Literary fiction)

After years teaching and writing in the field of philosophy, Carolyn Korsmeyer has turned her hand to fiction. Her first novel, Charlotte’s Story, imagines the life of Charlotte Lucas outside the pages of Pride and Prejudice. The second, Little Follies, is a contemporary thriller set in Krakow, Poland, at the turn of the millennium, featuring an art heist, murder, and hopeful magic. Riddle of Spirit and Bone, her third, involves the journey of three women seeking answers from beyond the grave. www.carolynkorsmeyer.com

Valerie Nieman’s Upon the Corner of the Moon: A tale of the Macbeths (March 2025): The children who will become the Macbeths grow up in a dangerous world, guided and misguided by prophecy, an ancient goddess, and the spirit of a powerful saint as their paths converge in a fiery bid for royal succession. (Historical/Literary fiction)

Valerie Nieman hiked Scotland from coast to coast and spent many happy hours in museums and libraries, at ruined forts and in local pubs, while researching her first historical novel Upon the Corner of the Moon. Nieman is the author of a short fiction collection, three poetry books, and six other novels. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award. www.valnieman.com

Nancy McCabe’s Fires Burning Underground (April 2025): In a year of turmoil and transition, creative games, new awareness of loss, and a fear of being haunted after the death of a friend, Anny struggles to find meaning in tragedy, come to terms with her questions about her sexuality, and negotiates her own ever-shifting new friendships. (Middle-grade fiction)

Nancy McCabe is the author of 10 books in multiple genres, most recently the middle grade novel, Fires Burning Underground, the YA novel, Vaulting through Time, the comic novel, The Pamela Papers, and the memoir, Can This Marriage Be Saved? Her 11th book, Creating Some Measure of Beauty: The Healing Power of the Artful Essay, is under contract with University of New Mexico Press. Her work has received a Pushcart Prize and 10 recognitions on the notable lists of Best American Essays. www.nancymccabe.net

Brad Barkley’s The Reel Life of Zara Kegg (June 2026): Three years after her mother’s death, 16-year-old Zara Kegg is starting over in a half-empty beach town, spending most of her time alone in the projection booth of a crumbling movie palace that now plays only 1950s sci-fi films. But as she plans a Godzilla-themed Valentine’s Day screening and falls for a mysterious boy named Zachary, Zara finds herself haunted not just by monsters on the screen, but by grief, trust, and the uneasy feeling that the past is never really past. (Young adult fiction)

Brad Barkley is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Money, Love and Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual, named Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post and Library Journal. He’s published two story collections, more than 40 stories, and three young adult novels, including Scrambled Eggs at Midnight and Dream Factory, recognized by the ALA and the New York Reading Association. His work has been translated into five languages and received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. www.bradbarkley.com