Poe and Place: The Original Southern Gothic

Is Edgar Allan Poe the original Southern Gothic writer? Richmond native and bestselling horror author Clay McLeod Chapman (Ghost Eaters, Wake Up and Open Your Eyes), whose fiction often returns to his hometown, joins renowned Poe scholar Dr. Scott Peeples (College of Charleston) for a conversation about Poe’s place in Southern literary history. Together, they will examine how Richmond shaped Poe’s imagination, how his work established many of the themes now associated with Southern Gothic:psychological dread, decaying places, obsession, guilt, and the uncanny. Blending literary scholarship with a working novelist’s perspective, the discussion will trace Poe’s enduring impact on generations of writers and explore why his stories remain so unsettlingly resonant today.