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Associate Professor Helen Marshall
Associate Professor

Helen Marshall

Email: 
Phone: 
+61 7 336 52999

Overview

Background

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.

Availability

Associate Professor Helen Marshall is:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours), University of Guelph
  • Masters (Coursework), University of Toronto
  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toronto

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.

Works

Search Professor Helen Marshall’s works on UQ eSpace

50 works between 2010 and 2024

21 - 40 of 50 works

2020

Journal Article

What can we learn about research narratives from professional storytellers?

Wilkins, Kim and Marshall, Helen (2020). What can we learn about research narratives from professional storytellers?. The STEAM Journal, 4 (2) 11, 1-4. doi: 10.5642/steam.20200402.11

What can we learn about research narratives from professional storytellers?

2020

Journal Article

A flare of light or ‘the great clomping foot of nerdism?’: M John Harrison’s radical poetics of worldbuilding

Marshall, Helen (2020). A flare of light or ‘the great clomping foot of nerdism?’: M John Harrison’s radical poetics of worldbuilding. Text, 24 (2), 1-24. doi: 10.52086/001c.18569

A flare of light or ‘the great clomping foot of nerdism?’: M John Harrison’s radical poetics of worldbuilding

2020

Book Chapter

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

Survival strategies for weird times

2020

Journal Article

A snapshot of an age: the publication history of Carrie

Marshall, Helen (2020). A snapshot of an age: the publication history of Carrie. Journal of Popular Culture, 53 (2), 284-302. doi: 10.1111/jpcu.12897

A snapshot of an age: the publication history of Carrie

2020

Conference Publication

Origin stories: starting points for crafting new science fiction

Marshall, Helen (2020). Origin stories: starting points for crafting new science fiction. International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, United States, 28 March 2020.

Origin stories: starting points for crafting new science fiction

2019

Journal Article

A sci-fi anthology offers widely divergent glimpses of the future

Marshall, Helen (2019). A sci-fi anthology offers widely divergent glimpses of the future. New Scientist, 244 (3253), 32.

A sci-fi anthology offers widely divergent glimpses of the future

2019

Other Outputs

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 Nekrolog

2019

Journal Article

The Institute by Stephen King leads a revolutionary sci-fi reboot

Marshall, Helen (2019). The Institute by Stephen King leads a revolutionary sci-fi reboot. New Scientist, 243 (3249), 32.

The Institute by Stephen King leads a revolutionary sci-fi reboot

2019

Journal Article

A surfeit of snake oil

Marshall, Helen (2019). A surfeit of snake oil. New Scientist, 243 (3245), 32.

A surfeit of snake oil

2019

Journal Article

Reflections of a broken world

Marshall, Helen (2019). Reflections of a broken world. New Scientist, 243 (3241), 32-32. doi: 10.1016/S0262-4079(19)31433-2

Reflections of a broken world

2019

Journal Article

Writing the future

Marshall, Helen (2019). Writing the future. New Scientist, 243 (3237), 30-30. doi: 10.1016/S0262-4079(19)31231-X

Writing the future

2019

Journal Article

Experimental words

Marshall, Helen (2019). Experimental words. New Scientist, 242 (3233), 32-32.

Experimental words

2018

Conference Publication

Impact and the creative arts

Marshall, Helen (2018). Impact and the creative arts. Transforming Research , Providence, RI, United States, 3-4 October 2018.

Impact and the creative arts

2018

Other Outputs

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.

The other tiger

2017

Conference Publication

Finding Carrie: changing book technologies and the growth of horror in literature

Marshall, Helen (2017). Finding Carrie: changing book technologies and the growth of horror in literature. Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing , Victoria, BC, Canada, 9-12 June 2017.

Finding Carrie: changing book technologies and the growth of horror in literature

2017

Other Outputs

They are passing by without turning

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

They are passing by without turning

2017

Conference Publication

Snapshot of an age: the publishing history of Carrie

Marshall, Helen (2017). Snapshot of an age: the publishing history of Carrie. The 38th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Orlando, FL, United States, 22-26 March 2017.

Snapshot of an age: the publishing history of Carrie

2017

Book

Year's best weird fiction

Helen Marshall and Michael Kelly eds. (2017). Year's best weird fiction. Toronto, Canada: Undertow Publications.

Year's best weird fiction

2017

Other Outputs

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 Way She Is With Strangers

2017

Book Chapter

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.

Small Press, Specialty, and Online Horror

Funding

Past funding

  • 2022
    The Ursula Project: Speculative Fiction techniques for technology foresight
    Commonwealth Defence Science and Technology Group
    Open grant
  • 2020 - 2021
    Defence Innovation Bridge
    The Defence Innovation Bridge Program
    Open grant

Supervision

Availability

Associate Professor Helen Marshall is:
Not available for supervision

Supervision history

Current supervision

  • Master Philosophy

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

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Associate Professor Stephen Carleton

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Metamorphosis: Where Fact Becomes Fiction

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Natalie Collie, Dr Tom Doig

  • Master Philosophy

    Through a Glass, Darkly: A Novella and Accompany Exegesis

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Fiona Foley

  • Doctor Philosophy

    The Realness of Unreal Things

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Kim Wilkins, Dr Tom Doig

  • Master Philosophy

    What we hear when we read: sound, ekphrasis and the novel

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Tamlyn Avery

  • Doctor Philosophy

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

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Natalie Collie

  • Doctor Philosophy

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

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Associate Professor Stephen Carleton

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Creative writing and the creation of a new Australian novel genre

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Kim Wilkins

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Literature in a Changed Publishing Environment

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Leah Henrickson, Professor Kim Wilkins

Completed supervision

Media

Enquiries

Contact Associate Professor Helen Marshall directly for media enquiries about:

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

Need help?

For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au