Jane Austen Society of North America,
Southwest Region
| |
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Half-Day Meeting
Los Angeles City College (LACC),
855 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles 90029.
| |
References to Jane Austen appear more than one thousand times in U.S. magazines and journals during the nineteenth century. The articles that discuss Austen provide an interesting story of a woman author who was deeply appreciated for her writing and for her biography--for the most part. Perhaps, not surprisingly, her greatest advocates and defenders were other prominent women. Critical standards and critical language were vastly different from the twenty-first century interpretations we enjoy today. Continuous attention, appreciation, and even controversy helped ensure that her reputation remained alive for the first hundred years of her afterlife among American readers.
|
Mary Mintz holds two master's degrees, one in library science and one in English literature with a specialization in nineteenth century British literature. Her master's paper focused on one of the prominent Victorian poets. After a forty-year professional career, she retired as the Associate Director for Outreach at the American University Library in Washington, D.C., as well as the Humanities and Honors Librarian. Now an emerita member of the faculty, she enjoyed working closely with history and literature students to support their original research. She has served JASNA nationally as the chair of the Nominating Committee, as an at-large-member of the Board of Directors, and as vice-president/president-elect. On December 16, 2022, she became the president of JASNA. She says, however, that one of her most rewarding roles in JASNA so far has been serving as Regional Coordinator of the DC Metropolitan Region. She took JASNA's third tour of England in 1999 and became a life member in her first year of membership. Meeting JASNA members in their home Regions and at the Annual General Meeting is the part of being President that she enjoys the most.
Registration Closes February 10, 2024
| |
|
JASNA Southwest is Hosting an Emporium at the
February In-Person Meeting.
We invite you to be a part of our emporium at the February 24, 2024 meeting at Los Angeles City College (LACC) 3rd Floor Multi-Purpose Room. Local artisans can apply to sell their handmade goods such as jewelry, crocheted and knitted goods, ceramics, wall art, dolls, aprons, candles, lotions. Local authors are also encouraged to sell their own books and sign them at the event. Keep in mind that this is a family-friendly event, and all merchandise must be appropriate. Vendors must also purchase a ticket to attend the in-person meeting.
For applications and more information email Melissa Buell
| |
Save the Date! April 20-21, 2024 | |
April 20 - 21, 2024 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Saturday & Sunday at USC
LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS AT USC
JASNA Southwest will celebrate our 12th year of participation at the Los Angeles
Times Festival of Books on the campus of USC, taking part in the largest book
festival in the nation. In 2023 over 3,300 attendees visited our large booth over the
two-day weekend. We will once again offer Austen-related books and merchandise
for sale.
Please consider volunteering at our booth — it’s a wonderful opportunity to
engage with other Austen enthusiasts. We seek help in setting up the booth,
greeting visitors, handing out information ‘postcards’ and selling books and
merchandise. Each shift is only 2 hours long. Please feel free to enjoy the festival before and after your shift. It’s always a tremendously rewarding experience to participate as a
volunteer. Every year some of our volunteers dress in Regency attire which sparks
interest, so volunteers please feel free to do so if you wish.
Concerned about what to talk about with festival attendees? We will be holding a ZOOM session prior to the event to provide talking points and to share ideas. Bring your ideas and stories.
Don’t own any Regency attire? We got you! We can provide resources to help you start your wardrobe.
Please contact jasnasw.fob@gmail.com for further information.
| |
“The Culture of Sensibility”
Saturday, May 4, 2024
9:00am- 3:30pm
| |
|
Full-Day In-Person Regional Meeting at
The Japanese American National Museum
100 N. Central Avenue
Los Angeles, Ca 90012
Registration Coming March 2024!
Speakers
Dr. Inger S. B. Brodey
”Making Sense of Sensibility”
Inger Brodey will discuss how this pan-European aesthetic movement shaped Austen’s writings throughout her life. This talk will focus on Love and Friendship, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion.
Dr. Peter Graham
”Byron: A Man of Mobility”
Peter Graham will examine Lord Byron’s view of sensibility in exploring human feelings and behavior. This talk will draw on Byron’s life, letters, and poems, especially his mock epic masterpiece Don Juan to tease out some of the intertwined traits of Byronic mobilité.
Karen Tei Yamashita
”Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro and Jane Austen’s Sensibility”
Karen Tei Yamashita will present a short story/essay written for this subject and occasion.
JASNA Southwest has planned a full-day in-person meeting on May 4, 2024 on the theme of The Culture of Sensibility in which we will return to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. The event will begin at 9:00am with a buffet continental breakfast, includes buffet lunch and concludes at 3:30pm.
Presenter Biographies
| |
|
Inger S. B. Brodey is an award-winning professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she teaches "Global Jane Austen" among other courses. She’s the founder and director of the annual Jane Austen Summer Program (JaneAustenSummer.org) and co-host of the Jane Austen and Co. web series (jaandco.org). As far as her JASNA involvement, she has served on the board of directors of JASNA, twice been a traveling lecturer, and twice been the JASNA North American Scholar lecturer at an AGM. In June 2024, she has a book coming out from Johns Hopkins University Press called Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness. You can read more about her at www.ingerbrodey.com | |
|
Peter Graham graduated from Davidson College and received his Master's and Doctorate from Duke University. His scholarly interests center on British literature and culture of the 19th-century with particular focus on Jane Austen, Lord Byron, and Charles Darwin. Among the books he's written and edited are Jane Austen and Lyme Regis, Jane Austen & Charles Darwin: Naturalists and Novelists, Don Juan and Regency England, The Portable Darwin (with Duncan M. Porter), and Darwin's Sciences. He has been a JASNA Traveling Lecturer, has published essays in Persuasions and has presented at many AGMs and JASNA regional events. He is professor emeritus in the Department of English at Virginia Tech. | |
|
Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of eight books, including I Hotel, finalist for the National Book Award, Tropic of Orange, Letters to Memory, and most recently, Sansei and Sensibility. Recipient in 2021 of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, she is professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her Zoom presentation on her book Sansei and Sensibility is available on the JASNA Southwest YouTube channel. Her latest book Dark Soil: Fictions and Mythographies will be published in May 2024 by Coffee House Press. | |
Annual General Meeting 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio | |
Get Ready to Reserve a Room for the AGM! | |
The 2024 AGM Preview is Available!
Click here to download the Preview Brochure, which provides an overview of the sessions and activities being planned for the AGM in Cleveland, Ohio. The Preview includes a first look at speakers, tours, and the schedule, and highlights what’s special about this AGM and the host city. Please review the options, talk to your prospective roommate if you have one, and get ready to reserve your hotel room.
The JASNA guest room block at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown
is Scheduled to open at 12 noon Eastern Time
on Wednesday, January, 31 2024.
Rooms for the official AGM nights of Thursday, October 17 through Sunday, October 20, as well as part of the JASNA block for Wednesday, October 16, will be available for reservation on January 31. Rooms for the Tuesday before and the Monday after the AGM, as well as part of the JASNA block for Wednesday, are not being released at this time, so that JASNA members who register for Wednesday and Monday tours may have priority in reserving those nights. Please see details on page 10 of the Preview or on the 2024 AGM Hotel Page.
| |
Articles, Podcasts, Events, and Entertainment | |
Feb 06, 2024, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
YouTube
SYRIE JAMES is the international, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels of historical and contemporary fiction, including The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen, Jane Austen’s First Love, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, and Dracula My Love. A life member of the WGA, JASNA, and the Historical Novel Society, Syrie has sold 20 screenplays to film and television and written, directed, and performed in original plays across North America and off-Broadway in New York.
| | |
Jane Austen in Love
Jane Austen’s House
An online version of our autumn/winter exhibition, exploring Jane's relationship with the dashing young Irishman Tom Lefroy. This exhibition brings together for the very first time Tom's portrait with Jane's letter in which she declares 'I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy'.
| | |
The Thing About Austen:
Episode 82: The Thing About Astley’s
Apple Podcasts
Come one, come all! Step right up and witness amazing feats on horseback! This episode we're headed to Astley's Amphitheatre where Harriet Smith and Robert Martin are getting nice and cozy. If you have ever found romance at the circus, this is the episode for you.
| | |
Austen Chat: Jane Austen & Dido Belle: A Visit with Renata Dennis
Apple Podcasts
JASNA member Renata Dennis joins us to discuss the fascinating story of Dido Belle, a woman of color caught between two identities. Dido was the daughter of an enslaved woman and a British naval officer but was raised as a gentlewoman in the household of William Murray, Earl of Mansfield and Lord Ch...
| | |
Regional and Non-JASNA Events
Check out JASNA's Event Calendar page for a list of events and activities in other regions across North America and learn about relevant upcoming non-JASNA events too!
| | |
Visit the JASNA Southwest
YouTube Channel
Karen Tei Yamashita's presentation, "Sansei and Sensibility," given March 27, 2021, to the Jane Austen Society of North America, Southwest Region.
and don't forget to…
| | |
Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 6:30pm
Janeites Reading Trollope
Sir Harry Harpspur of Humblethwaite
by Anthony Trollope
Meeting conducted bimonthly via Zoom
For more information, contact Joan Whitten
Saturday, March 30, 2024 at 1:00pm
Long Beach Reading Group
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Location: Pamela's Tea Room
For more information, contact Sherwood Smith.
Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 10:15am
North Orange County Reading Group
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
Location: Panera Bread 2415 E. Chapman Avenue, Fullerton, CA
For more information, contact Melissa Buell
Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 12:30pm
South Orange County Reading Group
The Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency Britain
by Ian Mortimer
For more information, contact
Maryann Pelensky
Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 7:00pm
Pasadena Reading Group
The Virginian: A Horse man of the Plains
by Owen Wister
For more information, contact Susan Ridgeway
Riverside Reading Group
Meeting conducted quarterly via Zoom
(Previous meeting was in January)
For more information, contact Vicki Broach
| | |
Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 2:00pm
San Fernando Valley Reading Group
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Meeting in person and via Zoom
For more information, contact Catherine Hayes
Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 10:30am
San Gabriel Valley Reading Group
For more information, contact Kelly Duir
Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 6:00pm
Santa Monica Reading Group
Jane Austen: The Banker’s Sister by E.J. Clery
Meeting will be conducted via Zoom
For more information, contact Diana Birchall
Sunday, March 10, 2024 at 2:00pm
South Bay Reading Group
Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James
Meeting in person and via Zoom
For more information, contact Jeanine Holguin
Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 10:00am
Ventura Reading Group
Persuasion by Jane Austen
For more information, contact Phyllis Michaels
Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 1:30pm
West Los Angeles Reading Group
Persuasion by Jane Austen
For more information, contact Katie Boeck
| |
Reading group leaders, please send your next meeting updates to JASNA Southwest News. For any further reading group questions or assistance, or to suggest formation of a new group, please feel free to contact Nancy Gallagher.
Please send in a current image of your group to be featured in future newsletters.
| | | | |