Lee Irby talks Confederate monuments and Edgar Allan Poe in Gulfport Friday night Credit: via Gulfport Historical Society

Lee Irby talks Confederate monuments and Edgar Allan Poe in Gulfport Friday night Credit: via Gulfport Historical Society
Florida fiction writer Lee Irby will speak about Confederate monuments and Edgar Allan Poe this Friday night at the Gulfport Historical Society's porch party. Irby, the author of a few great Florida books but most recently Unreliable, will use his unreliable narrator book as a springboard to discuss how the South regards its Confederate "heroes" and how conflicted Southerners like Edgar Allan Poe (although he was conflicted for other reasons) view those heroes.

Unreliable, like the South and Poe, deals with what some call "the burden of Southern history" and Irby, a perennial favorite, who, according to Rate My Professor, gives a hilarious talk, will connect the dots between all three.

The Gulfport Historical Society will have some light bites, but regulars to the porch parties often bring dishes to share. Dogs also often attend these events, apparently dependent on how much said dog has an interest in said topic.

Confederate Monuments and Edgar Allan Poe? | Gulfport History Museum, 5301 28th Ave. S., Gulfport | July 20: 6:30 p.m. | Free, members access the Square Mullet Clubhouse and all others may BYOB | Learn more on Facebook

This article appears in Jul 12-19, 2018.

Cathy's portfolio includes pieces for Visit Florida, USA Today and regional and local press. In 2016, UPF published Backroads of Paradise, her travel narrative about retracing the WPA-era Florida driving...