Sometimes called the “Poe Priest” or the “Curator of Curiosities,” the Edgar Allan Poe Museum’s curator Chris Semtner oversees the world’s largest collection of Poe’s possessions and has curated and designed critically acclaimed exhibits for museums and galleries across the country. His Poe Museum exhibits have brought that institution praise from TIME Magazine, USA Today, the New York Times, and many others. Semtner has also written several books and chapters on topics including Poe, visual art, cryptography, the paranormal, and crime fiction in addition to contributing articles to Biography.com, Crime Writers’ Chronicle, Resources for American Literary Studies, and other publications. In search of innovative ways to bring Poe to new audiences, Semtner has collaborated on Poe-themed performances with groups including the Latin Ballet of Virginia, the Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery, and the Garth Newel Music Center. He has been interviewed for BBC4, NHK (Japan), PBS, Travel Channel, truTV, NPR, C-SPAN, and other networks in addition to publications including the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and Forbes.com. He regularly speaks to audiences of all ages about strange and macabre subjects at various venues from the Steampunk World’s Fair to the Library of Congress and as far away as Japan.