PrairieLights: Emily Ogden – Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe

Emily Ogden will read from her new book, Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe. Described as “A fascinating and intimate inquiry into Edgar Allan Poe’s shadowy life and horrifyingly compelling work” (penguinrandomhouse.com), Darkness Becomes Bright is praised by Meghan O’Rourke, author of The Invisible Kingdom, as “profoundly insightful,” while Sarah Waters, author of The Paying Guests, says: “A wonderfully engaging account of Poe’s troubled life and work that is also a celebration of artistic cross-fertilization. Nimble, generous, brimming with insight, Ogden’s book captures the richness, the strangeness and the unexpected beauty to be found in our enduring fascination with the dark places of the soul.”

Emily Ogden is the author of On Not Knowing: How to Love and Other Essays and Credulity: A Cultural History of US Mesmerism. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, and a Mellon Fellowship in the Columbia Society of Fellows, she is a professor of English at the University of Virginia.