Could you write something for a northern horror anthology?

Northern Quill Publishing is looking for horror stories from across the North for its new anthology edited by Richard Van Camp and Jamesie Fournier.

“I want you to take us to a very dark place and leave us there. No apologies,” said Van Camp, a Tłı̨chǫ Dene author who is the anthology’s lead editor.

Van Camp – who described himself as a longtime fan of horror stories and his last three books as “terrifying and spiritually captivating” – said northern horror is chilling because it can be spiritual or cultural horror that crosses “cultural taboos.”

Jamesie Fournier, an Inuit writer and filmmaker who grew up in Yellowknife, is the assistant editor and will help curate the anthology.

Fournier said he’s looking forward to reading different approaches to storytelling, whether that’s mythical retellings, true scary encounters or traditional horror stories, done in a contemporary format.

“As northerners, we have a lot of potential for these great scary stories that seem to exist just below the surface,” said Fournier.

He said he was inspired by Van Camp at a young age and got his start as an author with a collection edited by Van Camp called Coming Home: Stories from the Northwest Territories.

Fournier has since published a horror novel, The Other Ones, which was animated into a stop-motion film and will be appearing at the Yellowknife International Film Festival.

When selecting stories for the anthology, Van Camp wants to be surprised by what he’s reading.

“What I want is for somebody from the communities that we all know and love and adore, for them to write something that is so unsettling that you’re like, ‘how did you do that?’” said Van Camp.

Van Camp will offer a free 90-minute workshop on Saturday through NorthWords NWT to help authors get pieces ready for consideration.

The workshop will dig into what makes a character compelling, explore what makes a story unsettling and ask why “we like to be scared so much,” Van Camp said.

“This is really an opportunity for new voices and accomplished voices to shine together,” he said of the anthology.

Submissions are open on Northern Quill’s website until November 30 and works by writers across the NWT, Yukon and Nunavut are accepted.

Stories must be 4,000 to 6,000 words in length and nearly print ready. Authors must not have used AI to generate parts or all of the story. Selected authors will receive $500.