Seb Reilly on Margate as a gothic muse
By Lagoon Myers
Author and editor of the Seaside Gothic magazine, Seb Reilly was born and raised in Margate.
He takes inspiration from coastal towns like ours, and from living in Cliftonville when it was a “desolate wasteland”.
Writing across several forms, Seb now focuses on novel writing and his magazine and says his passion is long-form fiction.
“Telling a story with that much depth and nuance is a privilege, but also a compulsion. Once the idea has grown I can’t not write it,” he says.
The idea for Seaside Gothic was born when Seb’s agent asked him to describe his latest novel in two words.
“My answer was the genre to which the work fit: seaside gothic,” he says. “Those words, plus the concept of a dilapidated coastal tourist town, became the backbone of the magazine itself.
“Both my novel writing and the magazine are seaside gothic to their core, as am I.”
Unlike traditional imagining of the Gothic, seaside gothic is “about place and people rather than concept".
“It is led by emotion, it addresses duality, and it connects to the edge", says Seb.
“It is populated by the working class and the transient, like coastal towns, and therefore very much at home along the Kent coast.”
When Seb is not curating the newest edition of Seaside Gothic or working on his upcoming novel, he is active in Thanet’s writerly community through mentorships, writing groups, and workshops.
Reilly believes that the act of writing is not done within a vacuum, but rather “the solo venture of writing requires community on either side”.
Seb said, “seeing the improvement in other writers as well as my own is an intoxicating and addictive experience, and so I still work to help and support others for the betterment of the art itself”.
Issue 12 of Seaside Gothic launches on October 1. You can pick up your copy at Margate Bookshop or seasidegothic.com
Seb Reilly will read from Seaside Gothic at Margate Bookie’s Local Writers Showcase at The Margate School on Tuesday, October 1 at 7pm. Tickets £5. Book now.