At great personal cost to his nerves, Mr Curnow spent 10 nights in 10 haunted locations across Australia in an attempt to find a language of courage, fear and unbridled terror.

The idea for the book was born when Mr Curnow, who will be a guest speaker at talks at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute this Friday, was ruminating about how language works to both terrify and embolden us.

"As a poet I felt responsible and that I should have some words about how terror plays on us," Mr Curnow said.

What better way to revisit this primal fear than to seek out the haunts of ghosts he thought.

The 10 locations chosen by Mr Curnow were arguably some of the biggest paranormal hotspots in the country.

The creepy trek took him from Old Adelaide Gaol in South Australia, Monte Cristo Homestead in New South Wales, to the Norfolk Island quarantine station, followed by Port Arthur in Tasmania.

For his money, the Old Adelaide Gaol gave Mr Curnow the biggest chills.

Mr Curnow will be a guest speaker at the Twilight talks this Friday at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute at 5pm, when he will sign copies of his book.