A few changes are afoot! Firstly, If I haven't mentioned it before, I am in a new locale, and this one is less lonely and windswept, so my little fireplace in the fog is now gone. But this place is… quite historic. I happen to live near the waters of Manhattan called the “Spuyten Duyvil.” It is the confluence of the Harlem River and the mighty Hudson. The currents here are so furious and deep that even the mightiest swimmers could drown in them. No one swims there today. Apparently there are laws against it. But once, in a tale by Washington Irving, a man was forced to swim across and he did so “In spite of the Devil.” The Dutch term “Spuyten Duyvil” translates to “spouting Devil.” I suppose it’s as if the Devil churns the current.
And so, here I live and write, near waters allocated to the Devil himself.
In these past few months I have been invited to serve as the inaugural Writer in Residence at the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage. BRONX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY manages and operates this place, the final home that Edgar Allan Poe lived in. $100 dollars a year from the Valentine family so they say.
The area was bucolic at the time and he moved here with his wife Virginia and his mother-in-law-slash-aunt; a topic we might get into later. Who knows. But they moved here because Virginia was sick with tuberculosis and they hoped the fresh air would help. Sadly, she died, in the little bed near the front of the house.
Poe’s life story is filled with disappointment and tragedy, and yet he changed the world with his words. It’s an amazing legacy to behold. We can reconsider this home not only as a place where Virginia died, but upstairs is the room where Poe wrote one of the most innovative and significant books in American literature; EUREKA. Aside from that, he also composed Annabel Lee, The Bells, Ulalume, and Landor’s Cottage… These are his final works.
As Writer in Residence, I am working with the Director of the Bronx County Historical Society, Dr. Steven Payne, to reestablish Poe Cottage as a living museum and literary center to bring the influence of Poe’s writing into the 21rst century.
We have MANY projects in the works; most of it is based around Poe's magnum opus EUREKA. We are calling it The Eureka Project, and it comes with a seismic shift for The Cottage.
This new path utilizes everything I have been called upon to do as a writer: Beast Crawl Literary Festival, Paper Press Books & Associates Publishing Company, Storytelling Live, and filmmaking.
Together, we hope to redesign The Cottage as a LIVING MUSEUM, more to Poe's liking and specifications left to us by his writings on interior design and Landor's Cottage.
We hope to formalize a residence for study, work, and overnights upstairs. We will open up the space -IT IS TINY- to limited audiences for poetry salons, performances, readings, and intimate events. I have already created a programming booklet with about 30 event templates for the Director to choose from.
We recorded Storytelling Live Halloween Special and will make a Christmas Eve holiday special as well. Both of these feature Poe tales.
We have plans for Poe's birthday in January, a Cask of Amontillado event set for February, and a Poetry Salon in April for Poetry and Arab American Heritage month.
Poe's stories still stand. Read them! In the days of short video clips and piles of media and loss of identity to “CONTENT” and “CONTENT CREATORS” we dare you to pick up a book. Paper books don’t sell like they used to. I understand. But a lightweight book needs no batteries, can entertain for hours, fits in your bag, keeps you company, inspires you… look at what a paper book can do! Poe Cottage Editions will be bringing a few of Poe’s books back to life, to keep you company at home and abroad.
There's too much to say here in this post, but I will keep you up to date on it all. FOR NOW, please join our YouTube channel YouTube.com/@poecottage and visit our website due to launch soon-- poecottage.org
