UMass Amherst Resurrects Edgar Allan Poe for Halloween

Oct. 22, 2009

Contact:

Elizabeth Washer 413/577-4423

AMHERST, Mass. – To mark the birth of Edgar Allen Poe in Boston 200 years ago, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is hosting a Halloween weekend conference, “Poe and the Writers and Artists of New England,” to examine and celebrate the writer’s influence on the region’s culture.

Scheduled for Oct. 29-31 in the Campus Center, the program will include papers and panels featuring scholars, writers and artists discussing Poe, his work and his world, and his influence on past and present creative work in New England. The weekend will also feature public readings, book signings, a concert and exhibition of Poe-inspired visual arts, a Poe film series, and other campus events.

Highlights will include keynote speeches by artist and illustrator Barry Moser, Paul Lewis, curator of the Boston Public Library’s exhibition “The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and the City of Boston,” and bestselling author Craig Shaw Gardner (A Malady of Magicks; Batman Returns). In addition to scholarly papers on various aspects of Poe’s work, from comics to art to poetry, the conference will feature panels of New England artists and writers discussing Poe’s works and their own, including Jack Coughlin, UMass Amherst professor emeritus of art, children’s book illustrator Linda Graves, dark fantasy artist Christin Couture, and horror and fantasy writers and critics Jack Haringa, R. Patrick Gates and Stanley Wiater.

The schedule of public events includes:

• A public reading and book signing by poet and UMass Amherst English professor Martin Espada and authors John Crowley and Elizabeth Hand, Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m., Fine Arts Center Concert Hall. They will read their own poems and stories, as well as works by Poe.

• Readings and talks by writers, artists and scholars including Barry Moser, John Crowley, Elizabeth Hand and Sabina Murray, professor of English at UMass Amherst, Friday, Oct. 30, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 163 Campus Center.

• Poe art exhibition featuring works by Barry Moser, Jack Coughlin, Christin Couture, and the complete original artwork for a 1948 Spirit story by Will Eisner (his adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher”), lent from Paris for this exhibition, Friday, Oct. 30, 5-7 p.m., Herter Art Gallery.

• UMass student and actor Peter Storey will perform a monologue as Edgar Allen Poe, together with musical arrangements of Poe’s poems performed by members of Wicked Pitch student a cappella group, Friday, Oct. 30 8-9:30 p.m., Flavin Family Auditorium, 137 Isenberg School of Management.

• Readings and talks by writers, artists and scholars, including Jack Haringa, R. Patrick Gates, Stanley Wiater and Paul Lewis, Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., 163 Campus Center.

The conference and public events are sponsored by the dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, the dean of the Graduate School, the departments of English and languages, literatures and cultures, the program in comparative literature, and Lesleigh Luttrell.

For more information, visit http://www.umass.edu/poeumass/ or contact the committee chairs N.C. Christopher Couch, nccouch@complit.umass.edu, or Steven C. Tracy, sctracy@afroam.umass.edu.

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