Heidi Hinda Chadwick in conversation

Blackwell’s Manchester welcomes writer and performer Heidi Hinda Chadwick to celebrate the publication of her novel The Story of the Deer Woman, in conversation with Blackwell’s James Daviss. The event explores a work that blends myth, metamorphosis and contemporary unease into a haunting and sensual narrative.

The novel begins with a chance encounter in a museum and follows an ordinary woman whose sense of reality starts to fracture in strange and unsettling ways. As desire awakens and transformation takes hold, the story moves into territory shaped by folklore, the body and the animal instincts that lie beneath the surface of everyday life. Lyrical, daring and darkly compelling, the book invites readers into a world where the macabre and the intimate are closely entwined.

Chadwick’s writing draws on influences from contemporary literary horror and feminist surrealism, creating fiction that is both psychologically sharp and richly imaginative. Her work interrogates power, identity and the limits of the human, finding meaning in the strange and the uncanny.

This conversation offers insight into the novel’s themes, its mythic resonances, and Chadwick’s approach to writing at the edges of realism and horror.