Tell-Tale Talks Featuring: Emily Carpenter

May 14 @ 5:30 pm 7:00 pm

Please check back in late April to reserve tickets for this event.

Join us at The Poe Museum on Thursday, May 14th for a Tell-Tale Talk with author Emily Carpenter, who will discuss her newest novel, A Spell For Saints And Sinners.

About A Spell For Saints And Sinners:

In front of an elegantly shabby townhouse on a Savannah side street sits a hand-painted sign: Miss Edie, Psychic. Ingrid White inherited the house and business from her beloved grandmother, a local celebrity in town. But unless Ingrid can find a way to pay for crushing property taxes and mounting repairs, she’s going to lose them both. Then Sailor Loeffler’s bachelorette party arrives at her door. Sailor is local royalty—part of the vast “Savannah Sauce” empire, beautiful and wealthy beyond imagining—and Ingrid’s reading is so accurate that she’s welcomed in as the bride-to-be’s confidante. To keep that access and all the privileges it brings, Ingrid relies more and more on hexes and dark spells—using the baneful magic Edie always warned her against. As Ingrid works even riskier spells, she is drawn further into the Loefflers’ inner circle and the obstacles in her path melt away. But is it witchcraft or other, more earthbound forces? Ingrid can feel the lines blurring even as her powers seem to grow, until she must confront the truth about just how far some people, including herself, will go to keep the life they’ve always wanted…

About Emily Carpenter:

Emily Carpenter is a bestselling author of novels of suspense. Her previous novels include Gothictown (A Southern Living Best Book of 2025…so far), Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies, Every Single Secret, Until the Day I Die, and Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters, which Publishers Weekly called a “refreshingly modern gothic tale” and Kirkus called “an exciting, gothic-tinged quest.” After graduating from Auburn University in Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, Emily moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Emily is a member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. Savannah is the city she dreams about moving to one day.

Website: www.emilycarpenterauthor.com
Instagram: @emily.d.c
Threads: @emily.d.c
Facebook: @ecarpenterauthor

Copies of Emily’s book will be available for purchase during the event.

$10 free for museum members
1914 E Main St
Richmond VA, Virginia 23223 United States
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Tell-Tale Talks Featuring: Joshua Barton

April 8 @ 5:30 pm 7:00 pm

Check back in late March for more details and to reserve tickets.

Join us at The Poe Museum on Wednesday, April 8th for a Tell-Tale Talk with professor Joshua Barton, who will discuss the topic of Southern Gothic Literature.

$10 free for museum members
1914 E Main St
Richmond VA, Virginia 23223 United States
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Tell-Tale Talks Featuring: Emily Ogden

October 1 @ 5:30 pm 7:00 pm

Please check back in late September to reserve tickets.

Join us at The Poe Museum on Thursday, October 1st for a Tell-Tale Talk with author and professor Emily Ogden, who will discuss her newest work, Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe.

About Darkness Becomes Bright:

A fascinating and intimate inquiry into the shadowy life and horrifyingly compelling work of Edgar Allan Poe, and why we are drawn to darkness in art

Since Edgar Allan Poe’s mysterious death in 1849, his stories and poems have captivated millions of readers around the world. One hundred seventy-five years later, why do we continue to descend into the darkness of his imaginationand of the genres, from horror to crime, that he pioneered?

In these spellbinding and singular book, Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant winner Emily Ogden plumbs the darkness within Poe and enters it alongside him. She interweaves stories from his mysterious and tragic life—from his strange disappearances and tortured romances to his nearly fatal use of opium—with those of his most famous readers and translators, including poet Charles Baudelaire, writer Julio Cortázar, and psychoanalyst Marie Bonaparte, a descendant of Napoleon and a patient of Sigmund Freud.

Tracing their passionate attachments to Poe and Ogden’s own—unexpectedly sparked when she taught an introductory Poe course at the University of Virginia, where Poe himself was once a student—Darkness Becomes Bright makes a different case for literature from the one we most often hear (that it engenders empathy). This exquisite volume shows how Poe’s vision and its echoes across the generations allows us to make peace with our own flawed humanity.

About Emily Ogden:

Emily Ogden is the author of On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays (2022) and Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism (2018). Her writing has appeared in The Yale Review, Critical Inquiry, The New York Times, American Literature, the LA Review of Books Quarterly Journal, The Point, and Berfrois, among other publications. The recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and a Mellon Fellowship in the Columbia Society of Fellows, she is Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

$10 free for museum members
1914 E Main St
Richmond VA, Virginia 23223 United States
+ Google Map

Tell-Tale Talks Featuring: Levi Lionel Leland

March 25 @ 5:30 pm 7:00 pm

Join us at The Poe Museum on Wednesday, March 25th for our first Tell-Tale Talk of 2026, featuring author Levi Lionel Leland, who will discuss his newest work, Edgar Allan Poe: The Master of the Macabre.

About Edgar Allan Poe:

Edgar Allan Poe dives deep into the life, stories, and legacy of the man who defined gothic fiction in the 19th century. Poe’s works such as The RavenThe Tell-Tale Heart, and The Fall of the House of Usher continue to inspire readers, writers, and artists around the globe. This new release offers a fresh perspective and insight on Poe’s contributions to literature, his personal struggles, and the mysteries that shrouded his life and death. 

About Levi Lionel Leland:

Levi Lionel Leland is a born and raised Rhode Islander with a new lifelong passion for Poe and his works. After visiting every Poe Museum or house in the country, he focused his attention homeward, learning all that he could about Poe’s time in Providence and creating the Edgar Allan Poe RI website and A Walking Tour of Poe’ Providence, where he shares his research and passion for our favorite gothic poet.

Copies of Levi’s book will be available for purchase during the event.

Reserve your tickets below!

$10 free for museum members
1914 E Main St
Richmond VA, Virginia 23223 United States
+ Google Map