NAME: Tabitha Potts
CREATIVE FIELD: Author
WEBSITE: tabithapotts.com
CREATIVE LINKS:
Facebook: @tabithaauthor
Instagram: @tabithapotts
AUTHOR BIO:
Tabitha Potts’ dark short fiction has been published in literary magazines and in various print anthologies. She was recently awarded an Honourable Mention by the prestigious Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize and longlisted for the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize.
She has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck and a First in English Language and Literature from Oxford University. She runs Story Radio Podcast, (www.storyradio.org). Her novel The House of Dust and Shadows will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing in 2026.
INTERVIEW
What got you into horror to begin with – what’s your core Horror memory?
I used to like telling my friends ghost stories when I was a child and loved reading (and writing) spooky books in general – Joan Aiken and E Nesbit were particular favourites.
My father subscribed to magazines like The Unexplained when I was a child and I loved those.
As a teenager I adored darker movies like Heathers and Edward Scissorhands or TV like Twin Peaks and read Gothic classics such as Wuthering Heights as well as obscure authors like Dennis Wheatley.
I think the rediscovery of folk horror has been an inspirational time for writers and I’ve very much enjoyed writing my own experiments in that genre.
Do you have a favourite horror subgenre (or more than one) and if so, what is it? What/Who are your favourite books/films/podcasts/artists/creatives working in that subgenre?
Folk horror and ghost stories/hauntology.
Too many to name them all but I admire Daisy Johnson (Fen), Andrew Michael Hurley (Starve Acre), Elizabeth Hand (Wylding Hall), Lucie McKnight Hardy (Water Shall Refuse Them, Dead Relatives) and Will McKnight (The Apparition Phase).
Oh and Edward Parnell’s Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country which is like a hauntology primer.
I enjoy the podcast Strange Familiars.
What is the horror project of your heart – perhaps something you’ve already got out there, something you’re working on now, or something you’d like to do?
I have a novel out in June 2026 with Rowan Prose Publishing and I’ve just finished editing it. It’s set in a haunted Norfolk manor house from the 1940s up to 2016 and tells the story of an eccentric and very dysfunctional family who live there.
Which 5 horror books can you not stop thinking about, or have influenced you most in some way? (If not books, you can pick 5 films, 5 pieces of art, 5 songs… or mix & match!)
I think I’ve been very influenced by the classic Gothic novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, to begin with. I’ve put some tributes to both novels in mine.
I remember when I first read The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (and watching The Company of Wolves, which she co-wrote with the director Neil Jordan) loving the way that fairy tales had been updated to different eras and given a modern and subversive twist.
And Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a strong influence on my most recent novel.
I discovered Shirley Jackson more recently and have been enjoying getting to know her work better.
If you had to describe the tones and themes of your own work in terms of movies, books, songs, or art, what would you choose and why?
In terms of tone and themes I would choose PJ Harvey, Florence and the Machine and Nick Cave as influences – an interest in dark themes, folklore, magic and spirituality is common to all of them and influences my work.
I love ‘Red Right Hand‘ by Nick Cave, ‘Everybody Scream’ by Florence and the Machine and ‘Henry Lee‘ by P J Harvey.
In terms of art I am very interested in Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning and Louise Bourgeois. I’ve always loved Surrealists.
Introduce us to something you’ve created, and pitch it to the audience!
We are but dust and shadows is the motto on the sundial in the garden at Blackthorn Manor. The past haunts the family living there. When Robert Landimor, a famous painter, dies suddenly, he leaves his estate, including Blackthorn Manor, to his housekeeper, Mary, disinheriting his three daughters, Lucia, Izzy, and Sara in the process. No one understands why. Sara attempts to find answers, but only uncovers buried secrets about their father and his family. Then, the body of a woman is discovered in the lake on the Manor’s grounds, leaving Sara and her sisters to face terrible danger. https://books2read.com/u/3Lq6P7