Biography

All-around spooky lady.
Photo by Purple Photo Group.

Amelia Cotter is an author, poet, researcher, and storyteller with a special interest in the supernatural, history, and folklore. Her books include Where the Party Never Ended: Ghosts of the Old Baraboo Inn, This House: The True Story of a Girl and a Ghost, Maryland Ghosts: Paranormal Encounters in the Free State, the children’s book Breakfast with Bigfoot, and the poetry collection apparitions. 

Amelia’s award-winning poetry and short fiction explore themes of anxiety, isolation, and trauma, often incorporating supernatural elements. Her work has appeared in journals like Barren Magazine, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, tinywords, and many others. Amelia is also a frequent research contributor to Haunted Magazine, Paranormality Magazine, The Feminine Macabre, and Troy Taylor’s The Morbid Curious.

Amelia has appeared on various radio and television programs, including Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, Travel Channel’s Hometown Horror, and in the documentaries Scary Stories and Tinker’s Shadow: The Hidden History of Tinker Swiss Cottage. She appeared as a regular cast member on Really Channel’s The R.I.P. Files. Amelia also works in modeling and background acting, appearing on shows like NBC’s Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., and FX’s The Bear, modeling clothing for locally owned Chicago boutique The Colette Collection, and was the official jewelry model for Chicago-based fair trade company Sandpiper Imports.

Amelia lives and writes in Chicago but is originally from Maryland, where she earned a degree in German and History from Hood College. She has written on the history of Chicago and Maryland, with a focus on Chicago’s hidden history, Maryland’s Civil War history, and, most notably, Maryland’s German World War II POW camps. Amelia has been a Chicago tour guide for more than a decade and has given haunted history tours with Chicago Hauntings ghost tours as well as private tours around the city. She regularly presents at conferences and events and is a member of The Society of Midland Authors. 

In 2020, the 10th anniversary edition of This House: The True Story of a Girl and a Ghost received the Higgypop Paranormal Entertainment Awards Gold Winner award for Best Paranormal Book. In 2023, apparitions was shortlisted for The Haiku Foundation 2022 Touchstone Awards for Distinguished Books as well as nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award.

Exploring historic, abandoned, and haunted places with her partner

in life and crime, Jonathan (Whispers Estate in Mitchell, Indiana).

All this, and Amelia has a day job, too. She has almost two decades of museum and nonprofit management experience and has volunteered for several animal welfare and wildlife conservation organizations and projects. Amelia loves animals and has a dog named Oskar and four adopted pet snakes. She also loves traveling and has lived abroad in Germany. Amelia’s other weird hobbies include playing the banjo and pole dancing, although not usually at the same time.

Amelia is a cancer survivor (Stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma) who appreciates every minute of her “supernatural” career. She enjoys her adventures with her husband and best friend, recording engineer and photographer Jonathan Montgomery Pollock. Together, they also own Amelia’s DragonGoddess Boutique, a small online store offering handmade incense blends and other magickal items.

You can find Amelia on Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, as well as at IMDb, Poetry Foundation, Poets & Writers, The Haiku Foundation, and The Society of Midland Authors. Write to her any time at ameliamcotter@gmail.com.