We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carmen Bouldin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Carmen, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on has been The Six Degrees of Edgar Allan Poe’s Poetry Reading Event and Poetry Contest. My podcast (or POEcast, as we like to call it) partner, Jeanie Smith, and I started a poetry contest called “Poe-it Like Poe” in 2023, which we opened up to both adults and youth. We have successfully completed two years of the contest and our third annual poetry contest will take place in April of 2025. To promote the contest during the second year, we hosted a YouTube live poetry reading event for around seven hours of poetry in one day. We invited authors, poets, actors, and creatives to either read one of Poe’s poems or read one of their own Poe inspired poems. The Poe community involvement was amazing! The readings and recitations produced an extremely fulfilling day raising positive emotions and artistic brilliance. Our viewers and listeners were thoroughly delighted as they interacted with us and our online guests. With this event kickstarting our poetry contest, it brought three times as many poetry entries as the previous year. Our judges loved reading the entries of such talented individuals, making it a tough decision to choose the winners. The meaningful part of the reading event and the poetry contest for me was how so many people came together to celebrate such a reknowned author and poet keeping his works alive. Additionally, the participants’ poems and creativity captured the essence of Poe showing their vulnerability and inner souls. So many people coming together creatively fills my “Tell-Tale” heart knowing we all have this one author in common. These types of projects are why I do what I do for the podcast with Jeanie because it means so much to us to see the excitement for us all.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been an Educator for 21 years having taught both history and English. I have been writing short stories and poetry since I was a young, nerdy girl around the age of 8; moreover, I also have been drawing, painting, and sewing even longer than my writing. I first was introduced to Edgar Allan Poe with the poem, “The Raven,” when I was in upper elementary. Since that time, I have engrossed myself with everything I can find, learn, read, research, and visit about Poe. In 2020, I listened to a few podcasts and thought to myself, I wonder if there is a podcast about the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. I found out quickly, there wasn’t one at that time. My friend, Jeanie Smith, and I started talking about how we could start a Poe podcast to provide not just basic information or readings, but delve into how Poe has influenced so many things and people. We came up with the name The Six Degrees of Edgar Allan Poe. The six degrees idea came from the six degrees of separation. Doing some research, we came up with the six degrees: Literature (Fiction, Detective Fiction, Poetry), Horror, Science/Science Fiction, Surrealism, Pop Culture, and Poe Places. We were overly ecstatic creating this POEcast to provide others with all the connected degrees Poe has to offer.

We started out doing audio podcast episodes in Season 1, and by the end of Season 2, we branched into both audio and video. Each month, we provide four different styles of episodes: a degree episode (based off of one of our six degrees), an interview with our monthly Gothic Guest, Review Morgue where we review movies adapted from Poe’s works, and Poe Unplugged (Our “unbook” club we hold the last Tuesday of the month on Zoom with anyone who wants to join. We discuss one of Poe’s works). We also have three other mini segments. Jeanie does a short segment called “Time Talks” where she takes a topic from history and discusses it and also ties in Poe. I do a short segment based on my travels called “On the Road with Carmen” where I find a Poe connection in every state. We also do video shorts called “Words on Wednesday” where we find a vocabulary word from one of Poe’s poems or short stories and provide the definition and syllables of the word, read a quote from that poem or story while a video is playing to provide a pictorial reference. Some months, we do specials for holidays like Halloween and celebrations like Poe’s birthday.

Periodically, we set up a vendor booth at different spooky or macabre events, such as the International Poefest in Baltimore during the month of October. At our vendor booths, we show a looped video showing clips from our episodes for people to watch and gain an idea of what we do. We also have merchandise we made to support the POEcast: t-shirts, stickers, magnets, bookmarks, journals, pocket pillows, and earrings. We have our merchandise featured on our website.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Our goal for our podcast has always been to provide accurate content of how Edgar Allan Poe has influenced other authors and creatives, and even society. We do this by using credible and realible resources such as The Poe Museum in Richmond, VA and The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, MD. So much misinformation about Poe has been shared throughout time, we want to be one more outlet who shares his life and works with fidelity.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the fulfillment I get when we complete an episode, artwork, merchandise, etc. Seeing the end result of just a simple vocabulary video to hosting a Kickstarter launch event for an editor gives me a feeling of pride and joy. Another rewarding aspect is when we publish our work and we gain more subscribers or receive comments and emails with positive feedback. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing we have taught someone new information or we have provided entertainment to make someone happy, or even laugh. I can not remember a time when I was not working on creative projects. So, sharing my art, especially with my podcast partner Jeanie, to our community means the world to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sixdegreesofpoe.com/
• Instagram: @sixdegreesofpoe
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069645383701
• Twitter: @sixdegreesofpoe
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@poeunplugged3978
• Other: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sixdegreesofedgarallanpoe