The March winds may have been blustering, but JASNA NC couldn’t resist the call of Mary Jane Curry’s Zoom presentation “Wild Nature: An Exploration.” Curry’s talk tackled the role of nature in Jane Austen’s novels, a topic discussed in detail in Jane Austen and Nature: The Novels as Pastoral Literature. Thirty-seven Austen fans from as far away as Wales relished…
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Exploring Wild Nature with Mary Jane Curry
Exploring the Poetry of Phillis Wheatley
By Bill Gaither Members gathered on February 16, 2025, for a stimulating and sometimes impassioned discussion of the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, an American contemporary of Jane Austen and the first African-American author to publish a book of poetry. The discussion was ably led by regional coordinator Sara Tavela, who also provided an introduction to the life and poetry of Wheatley. This was a…
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Telling Our Jane Austen Stories
By Elizabeth Jewell Sara Tavela welcomed us to the “Jane-uary” meeting. As we were a smaller group, we decided to remain a larger group to share the stories of how each member originally became interested in Jane Austen and her works. Sara came to Jane Austen in elementary school through the illustrated classics for children; the first she read was…
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Celebrating Jane Austen’s Birthday with Speaker Kuldip Kuwahara
By Elizabeth Jewell The annual festivities celebrating both the holiday season and, particularly, the 249th birthday of our beloved Jane were held at Gisele Rankin’s lovely home in Cary, with attendance both in person and by Zoom. This year, we were lucky to have the fascinating Dr. Kuldip Kuwahara present “Jane Austen and Happiness,” subtitled “Jane Austen and Frankenstein.” Dr….
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Discussing Beth Pattillo’s ‘Jane Austen Ruined My Life’ and Meeting the Author
By: Linda Darden The JASNA NC Virtual Book Club returned in November, with a reading of Beth Pattillo’s 2008 novel Jane Austen Ruined My Life. JASNA members and guests participated in a discussion facilitated by club member Nancy Young before being joined by the author for a Q&A session. The story in this selection centers on the journey of English professor…
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