By Nancy Young “C’mon Janeites, don’t you want to go/To the AGM in my Sweet Home Chicago…” That was the theme song for this year’s Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America, held October 15-17 in Chicago. Two JASNA-NC members attended and shared their experience with 24 other attendees at the JASNA-NC October meeting. Member and…
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JASNA-NC’s Bench Installed at Chawton House
By Gisele Rankin In 2019, seeing the need to replace the old and mismatched benches in its gardens and install additional seating, Chawton House initiated a “Share a Bench with Jane” campaign. A number of JASNA-NC members banded together to sponsor a bench. After disappointing but unpreventable delays, eight of the 30 new benches now grace the grounds of Chawton…
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Discussing Austen, Slavery, and “Dead Silence!”
On September 19, more than forty JASNA-NC members and guests gathered on Zoom for “All the Noise about ‘Dead Silence!’ A Fresh Look at Austen and Slavery” with Collins Hemingway. Collins is one of three JASNA Traveling Lecturers and his presentation was funded in part by a grant from JASNA. Thank you to Sue Scott for managing the grant process…
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Wit and Prattles Author Conversation
By Karin Wiberg I had the very great pleasure of speaking with author Nancy Martin-Young about her new book, Wit and Prattles, at an event August 29 at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. With about two dozen folks in attendance, including several JASNA-NC members, we had a lot of fun talking Austen, craft, and fan fiction. Here are some of…
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JASNA-NC Reads Mansfield Park
“She had…a fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself.” Fanny Price’s sentiment was shared August 29 by thirty-one attendees who logged into Zoom for the JASNA-NC Virtual Book Club’s meeting on Mansfield Park. Austen’s first novel composed entirely in adulthood has long sparked debate among her fans, and this occasion proved no exception. Erin Handly…
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