Horror Novels: Modern Femininity
Sat, Oct 03
|First Baptist Church - Carreker Hall
Horror novels by Sarah Langan and Mary Berman take aim at the aesthetics and expectations shaping modern femininity.
Time & Location
Oct 03, 2026, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM EDT
First Baptist Church - Carreker Hall, 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
About
Horror is one of the sharpest ways to make sense of the anxieties and absurdities of our modern age—and these two horror novels take aim at the aesthetics and expectations shaping modern femininity. In Trad Wife by Sarah Langan, a journalist profiles a trad wife influencer only to discover something far more sinister than staged videos and camera-ready smiles. In Until Death by Mary Berman, a writer’s scrolling on wedding forums has done little to prepare her for the nightmare of planning her own special day. These two authors will explore how Gothic horror can expose and skewer the systems, performances, and industries determined to keep women in their place.
Purchase your book from Eagle Eye, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the festival.
This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required, and seating is first come, first served. Signing information: Signing time: 2:45 PM
Signing location: First Baptist Church – Front Lawn
About the Authors
Mary Berman is a Philadelphia-based writer. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Mississippi, where she was a Graduate Excellence Fellow, and she also holds a BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University. Her short works have been published in Cicada, PseudoPod, Fireside Magazine, and elsewhere. Until Death is her debut novel.
Sarah Langan is a three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning writer whose novels (A Better World, Good Neighbors, The Missing, etc.) have made best-of-the-year lists at NPR, Newsweek, The Irish Times, AARP, and Publishers Weekly. Her short stories have appeared in Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Wired, The Year's Best Horror, The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She has an MFA from Columbia University and an MS in Environmental Health Science/Toxicology from NYU, and she lives in Los Angeles with her family. She is joining us with her sixth novel, Trad Wife.
About the Moderator
Kristi DeMeester (she/her) is the author of Dark Sisters, Such a Pretty Smile, both finalists for Georgia Author of the Year, and Beneath. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as The Dark, Black Static, multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Horror, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and in her short fiction collection Everything That’s Underneath. She lives, writes, and makes horror-themed candles in Atlanta, Georgia. Find her online at kristidemeester.com.