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Dr Helen Marshall

Senior Lecturer

School of Communication and Arts
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
helen.marshall@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52999

Overview

Dr. Helen Marshall is an acclaimed writer, editor and book historian. Her first collection of fiction, Hair Side, Flesh Side, takes its name from the two sides of a piece of parchment—animal skin scraped, stretched and prepared to hold writing. Gifts for the One Who Comes After, her second collection, borrows tropes from the Gothic tradition to negotiate issues of legacy and tradition. Collectively, her two books of short stories have won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic.

Her research as both as a creative practitioner and a scholar emerges out of the recent interest in “weird” fiction, a sub-genre of fantasy which blends supernatural, mythical, and scientific writing. Using modern theories of cognition, my work posits weird texts as “emotion machine[s]” (Tan 1996) designed to defamiliarize traumatic experiences so they can be more easily managed. Her debut novel The Migration (Random House Canada/Titan UK, 2019) exemplifies this. It finds parallels between the emergence of the Black Death in the fourteenth century and the ecological crises of the twenty-first century—that is, periods when humanity has had to confront the possibility of widescale loss of life. What interests her about the topic is not its bleakness but its interrogation of how change might take place, particularly for young people. The Migration explores these challenges. It initially presents metamorphosis as a major crisis, terrifying in its transfiguration of death. But, as the novel progresses, it shows the potential for hopeful and radical change.

Over the last five years notions of the apocalypse have emerged as a theme in her work. Her second collection, Gifts for the One Who Comes After addressed the shaping and persistence of memory in the wake of dangerous upheaval. Rather than taking the long view of history in my first collection, it negotiated very personal issues of legacy and tradition, creating myth-infused worlds where “love is as liable to cut as to cradle, childhood is a supernatural minefield, and death is ‘the slow undoing of beautiful things’” (Quill & Quire, starred review). Likewise her most recent edited collection The Year’s Best Weird Fiction argues that the techniques of defamiliarization used by contemporary authors such as Jeff VanderMeer and China Miéville offer routes for engaging in an increasingly destabilized world.

As a creative practitioner she has worked with interdisciplinary teams using narrative skills, worldbuilding and gamification for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (future threat prediction), the Diamantina Institute (storytelling and empathy for medical researchers), CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (future technologies), and the Department of Defence (innovation and AI – funded $260,000). She has led international workshops to research how creative skills might be applied to wicked problems and she has led a project to apply these skills to technology foresight for the Defence Science Technology Group (Web 3.0 - funded $89,097).

She has further interests in both modern and medieval publishing cultures. Her PhD examined the codicology and palaeography of late medieval manuscripts from England, looking at how Middle English “bestsellers” such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and the anonymous Prick of Conscience made use of traceable networks of production and dissemination. This work builds upon the practical experience she gained working in the publishing industry as the Managing Editor for ChiZine Publications, Canada’s largest independent genre press, where she was involved in all aspects of production including editing, marketing and business management. In 2016 she undertook a research project to investigate the publishing history of Stephen King’s Carrie (1974), which provided a snapshot of the changing social, economic and cultural environment of the publishing industry when key editorial and marketing decisions fashioned the King brand.

Her current projects explore worldbuilding, franchise writing, and the application of creative arts methodologies for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ideation.

Research Interests

  • Creative practice
  • Creative foresight methodologies
  • Science fiction, fantasy, weird fiction and apocalyptic literature
  • Short stories, novels and poetry
  • Medieval and contemporary book cultures

Research Impacts

In March 2020, Dr. Helen Marshall and Associate Professor Kim Wilkins launched "Wish You Were Here": Postcards from Future Queensland, a community arts project that empowers Queensland communities to imagine a better future after the Covid-19 crisis, through storytelling. Supported by UQ's School of Communication and Arts, Centre for Critical and Creative Writing, AustLit and Corella Press, this project provides a series of short video lectures and writing challenges, inviting people of all ages across the state, with a particular focus on high school and university students, to contribute short written submissions--our postcards from future Queensland.

Qualifications

  • Master of Arts, University of Toronto
  • Bachelor Arts Honours, University of Guelph
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toronto

Publications

  • Other Outputs: The Migration

    Marshall, Helen (2019). The Migration. Toronto, Canada: Random House Canada.

  • Book Chapter: "Lothly thinges thai weren alle": imagining horror in the late Middle Ages

    Marshall, Helen (2018). "Lothly thinges thai weren alle": imagining horror in the late Middle Ages. New directions in supernatural horror literature: the critical influence of H. P. Lovecraft. (pp. 101-126) edited by Sean Moreland. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-95477-6_6

  • Other Outputs: Gifts for the one who comes after

    Marshall, Helen (2014). Gifts for the one who comes after. Toronto, Canada: ChiZine Publication.

  • Other Outputs: Hair side, flesh side

    Marshall, Helen (2012). Hair side, flesh side. Toronto, Canada: ChiZine Publication.

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Creative writing MPhil and PhDs for established practitioners

    I am only available to take MPhil and PhD applications from established writers who seek to frame their work in sophisticated thematic ways. I am also interested in supervising projects which use creative storytelling methodologies to address complex or wicked problems. Please email me directly to enquire.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

  • The Migration

    Marshall, Helen (2019). The Migration. Toronto, Canada: Random House Canada.

  • "Lothly thinges thai weren alle": imagining horror in the late Middle Ages

    Marshall, Helen (2018). "Lothly thinges thai weren alle": imagining horror in the late Middle Ages. New directions in supernatural horror literature: the critical influence of H. P. Lovecraft. (pp. 101-126) edited by Sean Moreland. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-95477-6_6

  • Gifts for the one who comes after

    Marshall, Helen (2014). Gifts for the one who comes after. Toronto, Canada: ChiZine Publication.

  • Hair side, flesh side

    Marshall, Helen (2012). Hair side, flesh side. Toronto, Canada: ChiZine Publication.

Book

Book Chapter

  • Emerging writers/established publishers: a ten-year study of the Hachette Manuscript Development Program

    Wilkins, Kim, Marshall, Helen and Tulic, Marina (2022). Emerging writers/established publishers: a ten-year study of the Hachette Manuscript Development Program. Creative writing scholars on the publishing trade: Practice, Praxis, Print. (pp. 19-32) edited by Sam Meekings and Marshall Moore. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003041559-2

  • Survival strategies for weird times

    Marshall, Helen (2020). Survival strategies for weird times. The diseases of the head: essays on the horrors of speculative philosophy. (pp. 277-314) edited by Matt Rosen. New York, NY, United States: Punctum Books. doi: 10.21983/P3.0280.1.00

  • "Lothly thinges thai weren alle": imagining horror in the late Middle Ages

    Marshall, Helen (2018). "Lothly thinges thai weren alle": imagining horror in the late Middle Ages. New directions in supernatural horror literature: the critical influence of H. P. Lovecraft. (pp. 101-126) edited by Sean Moreland. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-95477-6_6

  • Small Press, Specialty, and Online Horror

    Marshall, Helen (2017). Small Press, Specialty, and Online Horror. Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories that Speak to Our Deepest Fears. (pp. 153-157) edited by Cardin, Matt. Santa Barbara, CA, United States: Greenwood.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

  • What IF Consortium reports: envision, engage, empathise, inhabit

    Anderton, Joanne, Marshall, Helen and Wilkins, Kim (2023). What IF Consortium reports: envision, engage, empathise, inhabit. Brisbane, QLD Australia:

  • The Gold Leaf Executions

    Helen Marshall (2023). The Gold Leaf Executions. London: Unsung Stories.

  • Project Ursula speculative fiction techniques for technology foresight: facilitator handbook

    Marshall, Helen, Wilkins, Kim, Bennett, Lisa, Anderton, Joanne and Ivanova, Ksenia (2023). Project Ursula speculative fiction techniques for technology foresight: facilitator handbook. Brisbane, QLD Australia: What If Lab; The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/c6a0989

  • The Ursula Project: Conceptual Framework

    Marshall, Helen , Wilkins, Kim , Bennett, Lisa and Anderton, Joanne (2023). The Ursula Project: Conceptual Framework. Brisbane, Australia: The What If Lab, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/9a5e903

  • Web 3.0 technology impacts and future scenarios

    Anderton, Joanne, Ivanova, Ksenia, Marshall, Helen, Wilkins, Kim, Bennett, Lisa and Scott, Haley (2023). Web 3.0 technology impacts and future scenarios. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Human and Decision Sciences Division, Defence Science Technology Group.

  • The bone girl

    Marshall, Helen (2022). The bone girl. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: QML City Symphony.

  • The Happy Medium

    Marshall, Helen (2021). The Happy Medium. There Is No Death, There Are No Dead: Tales of Spiritualism Horror. (pp. 33-54) edited by Jess Landry and Aaron J. French. New York, NY, United States: Crystal Lake Publishing.

  • The Nekrolog

    Marshall, Helen (2019). The Nekrolog. Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery. (pp. 303-326) edited by Christopher Golden and Rachel Deering. London, United Kingdom: Titan Books.

  • The Migration

    Marshall, Helen (2019). The Migration. Toronto, Canada: Random House Canada.

  • The other tiger

    Marshall, Helen (2018). The other tiger. The silent garden collective: a journal of esoteric fabulism. (pp. 13-45) edited by Silent Garden Collective . Toronto, Canada: Undertow Publications.

  • They are passing by without turning

    Marshall, Helen (2017). They are passing by without turning. Gamut (6).

  • Caldera

    Marshall, Helen (2017). Caldera. Unspeakable Horror 2: Abominations of Desire. (pp. 157-175) edited by Liaguna, Vince A. New York, United States: Evil Jester Press.

  • Survival Strategies

    Marshall, Helen (2017). Survival Strategies. Black Static (58).

  • Survival strategies

    Marshall, Helen (2017). Survival strategies. Black Static, 58.

  • The Embalmer

    Marshall, Helen (2017). The Embalmer. The Mammoth Book of The Mummy. (pp. 415-426) edited by Paula Guran. New York, United States: Prime.

  • The Way She Is With Strangers

    Marshall, Helen (2017). The Way She Is With Strangers. Dark Cities. (pp. 79-94) edited by Christopher Golden. London, United Kingdom: Titan Books.

  • The gold leaf executions

    Marshall, Helen (2016). The gold leaf executions. CVC anthology. (pp. 13-22) edited by Michael Callaghan. Toronto, Canada: Exile Editions.

  • All Things Fall and Are Built Again

    Marshall, Helen (2014). All Things Fall and Are Built Again. Dangerous Games. (pp. 263-279) Oxford, United Kingdom: Solaris.

  • Gifts for the one who comes after

    Marshall, Helen (2014). Gifts for the one who comes after. Toronto, Canada: ChiZine Publication.

  • The sex lives of monsters

    Marshall, Helen (2013). The sex lives of monsters. Toronto, Canada: Kelp Queen Press.

  • Hair side, flesh side

    Marshall, Helen (2012). Hair side, flesh side. Toronto, Canada: ChiZine Publication.

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Graham of Morphie and the Kelpie: The Australian Gothic and the Silencing of Female Characters

    Master Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Tell Me Everything In The Whole World: Modern Gothic Literature, Non-Linear Mnemonic Time as a Lens to Explore Women's Lives

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Metamorphosis: Where Fact Becomes Fiction

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The Sound of the Real: scriptedness, ekphrasis and the novel

    Master Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The Realness of Unreal Things

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Shifting Sands: Constructions of past, present, and future in contemporary Australian eco-gothic playwriting.

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Literature in a Changed Publishing Environment

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Creative writing MPhil and PhDs for established practitioners

    I am only available to take MPhil and PhD applications from established writers who seek to frame their work in sophisticated thematic ways. I am also interested in supervising projects which use creative storytelling methodologies to address complex or wicked problems. Please email me directly to enquire.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

science fiction, fantasy, horror, short stories, popular fiction, Stephen King, dystopian literature

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ORCID: 0000-0001-7127-7339

Personal Profile: Link

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