NEWS RELEASE

JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA

October 17, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

POETRY OF EDGAR ALLEN POE FEATURED AT EAST BANK REGIONAL LIBRARY PRESENTATION

JEFFERSON, LA – Christy Cognevich, PhD, library associate, will lead a group read of Edgar Allan Poe poems at 7 p.m., Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at the East Bank Regional Library (4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie, LA 70001).

This presentation is free of charge and open to the public. There is no registration.

Volunteers will read some of Poe’s best-loved poems, including: "The Raven," "Annabel Lee," "The City in the Sea," and "Lenore." Others will be read if there are enough volunteers.

The group read occurs when all the readers have gathered and selected the poems or parts of poems they’d like to read. Then the reading commences.

Dr. Christie Cognevich has a master's in English literature from the University of New Orleans and a doctoral degree in English literature from Louisiana State University. She taught English literature and writing for more than a decade. Her scholarly specialties include Romantic and Victorian poetry. Her doctoral thesis focused on the late-eighteenth-century British sonnet revival and poet Charlotte Smith, who was one of William Wordsworth's early inspirations.

In addition to Cognevich's published work in scholarly journals she has done extensive archival research and received fellowships to the Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University to study their Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning papers and the Lilly Library at Indiana University to study their Sylvia Plath papers.

Additionally, Dr. Cognevich holds an MFA degree in creative writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the YA non-fiction books Depression: Insights and Tips for Teenagers (2020) and Dealing with Stress: Insights and Tips for Teenagers (2022), both published by Rowman & Littlefield. In addition to her non-fiction work on mental health, she writes YA fiction, picture books, and poetry.

For more information regarding this event, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.

The Jefferson Parish Library system consists of 16 locations that stretch from the Lakeshore Branch on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain to the Grand Isle Branch just steps away from the Gulf of Mexico. The library system consists of two large regional libraries and seven branches on each side of the Mississippi River. The East Bank Regional Library serves as library headquarters. The Jefferson Parish Library is the second largest system in the state of Louisiana. More than 200 employees work for the Jefferson Parish Library including librarians, administration and support staff. For more information, contact the library at (504) 838-1100 or www.jefferson.lib.la.us.

For more information about Jefferson Parish, visit www.JeffParish.net. Residents can also receive regular updates by following the Parish on social media (@JeffParishGov) or by texting JPALERT or JPNOTICIAS to 888-777.

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Jefferson Parish Public Information Office 1221 Elmwood Park Boulevard, Suite 1002 Jefferson, LA 70123

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Gretchen Hirt Gendron, PIO