Writing the Occult: Belief
Saturday 6 September, 2025
Starts 1pm UK / 9am ET
Early bird tickets are £35 until 16 August 2025, or £40 from 17 August. Sales end at midnight GMT on 5 September.
It’s one of the few topics that can polarise a population: do you proselytise, or do you run from any hint of religious discussion? But belief is not just about which sky captain you think is better than others; it’s about the reasons we do what we do, why we blindly follow others—and why we don’t follow at all. What can belief make us humans do?
Join us at Writing the Occult where we venture into forbidden territory. Yes, we’re going to talk about beliefs. What’s it like to live in a cult? Why do people get swept away by charismatic leaders? Where do conspiracy theories come from? And what makes humans believe in the first place? Let’s ask if the truth really is out there.
Confirmed speaker line-up:
Deborah Hyde, author, presenter, and skeptic
Lilith Dorsey, magickal practitioner, voodoo priestess, and writer
Dr Francis Young, author and scholar in the history of religion and belief
Brandon Grafius, author and academic focusing on the intersection of religion and horror
Wole Talabi, engineer, writer, editor, and author of the multi-award-nominated Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
Dr S Jonathon O'Donnell, author and expert in the politics of the contemporary Christian right
Jordan S. Carroll, author and academic
Ella Snyder, poet, interdisciplinary creative, and two-time cult survivor
Sarah Elliott, writer, poet, editor, and community-builder
Chris Hawton, fandom podcaster
Writing the Occult is a boutique series of events brought to you by the Society of Ink Slingers, in partnership with Alex Davis Events. Our approach is to bring together the fiction world with folklore and academia to bring a well-rounded view to a specific area of interest to both speculative fiction writers and those with a hankering for the esoteric.
Speaker bios and session details coming soon. Follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for announcements.
