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by Beatrice Winifred Iker (Author)
This heart-pounding Southern gothic horror debut from Beatrice Winifred Iker, takes readers to Bricksbury Mountain College, the oldest and most storied HBCU in the nation. But as one student is about to find out, a long history comes with a legacy of secrets.
Zora Robinson is an ambitious grad student in her dream program at her dream university. When her thesis advisor hands her a strange diary and suggests she research the local folklore about a beast roaming the woods surrounding campus, Zora finds a community uneager to talk to an outsider. As she delves into the history of the beast, she uncovers a rumored secret society called the Keepers that has tenuous ties to the beast...and Bricksbury itself. Zora soon finds herself plagued by visions of the past, and her grip on reality starts to slip as she struggles to uncover what is real and what is folklore. But when a student goes missing, Zora starts to wonder if the Keepers ever really disbanded. There's something in the woods and it has its eyes on Zora.Author Biography
Beatrice Winifred Iker is a Southern Appalachian poet, author, and tarot reader. They are a Rhysling Award Finalist whose work can be found in Fantasy Magazine, FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, Nightmare Magazine, and others. Beatrice is a co-host of the Ignyte Award-winning Afronauts Podcast, which discusses and uplifts Black speculative fiction, and is a Voodoonauts Fellowship alum. Their debut adult Southern Gothic horror novel, I'll Make A Spectacle of You, is to be published in November 2025, and their debut picture book, Charley's Honky-Tonk Mission, is to be published in summer 2026.
