Upcoming JASNA Syracuse Meetings

Here are descriptions of JASNA Syracuse’s late winter and spring 2011 meetings--which, as noted last fall, are being held as close to the Regency “quarter days” and “cross-quarter days” as we can manage. All meetings will be on Saturdays at 2 pm, unless otherwise indicated. Note especially the new location and date of the Lady Day meeting: The Books and Memories location wasn’t working out very well for Syracuse-area meetings, and we were unable to reserve a meeting room at the Liverpool Library for the originally scheduled Lady Day date of April 2.

February 12, 2011 (Candlemas): Colgate Bookstore, 3 Utica St., Hamilton. The “official” joint meeting of JASNA Syracuse and the Colgate Bookstore Jane Austen Book Club (JABC), even though many JABC members are also JASNA members. After a short discussion of Regency card games in general, we’ll try our hands at playing Speculation! For those who would like to begin familiarizing themselves with the rules for Speculation in advance, here are links to two sets: one on the David Parlett Games site and one on the Jane Austen Centre Magazine site. A prize will be awarded to the most successful player!

March 26, 2011 (Lady Day) (NEW LOCATION AND DATE): Sargent Room of the Liverpool Public Library, 310 Tulip St., Liverpool. An update of the “iJane: Jane Austen in the Information Age” conference co-sponsored by JASNA Syracuse and JASNA Rochester in spring 2008 in Rochester. Although “our Jane” is now such a commanding presence on the Internet that full coverage of Austen-related web offerings is impossible, your Regional Coordinators will attempt to provide some basic guidance to what’s out there. Bring URLs and descriptions of your own favorite websites and blogs as well!

May 7, 2011 (May Day): RiverRead Bookstore, 5 Court St., Binghamton. When those attending the Binghamton meeting in November were offered a choice of topics for this meeting, they chose the Juvenilia--the delightful short comic sketches that JA wrote as a teenager. We’ll make arrangements with our friends at RiverRead to stock the Oxford University Press paperback Catharine and Other Writings, which includes the Juvenilia. However, no prior acquaintance with these stories is required, as we’ll spend much of the meeting just reading aloud from them. A sense of fun is the only prerequisite!

June 25, 2011 (date approximate) (Midsummer): To be announced. We’re exploring a couple of possibilities: an author event to be co-sponsored by JASNA Syracuse and the Colgate JABC, or a “Box Hill” picnic.

A Happy New Year with Persuasions On-Line!

Between the excitement of the JASSYL/JASNA concert and the typical demands of the holiday season, we're rather late in wishing all CNY Janeites a Happy "Austenmas" (Co-Coordinator Lisa Brown's term for Jane Austen's birthday on December 16), a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. But one Austenmas treat can be savored at any time: the new issue of JASNA's electronic journal, Persuasions On-Line. This appeared on December 16 and can be accessed by clicking here. Several of the presentations from the Portland AGM appear as articles in this issue, including Susan Allen Ford's "Ingenious Torments" breakout session (see the November 8 post below). And the "Miscellany" articles provide much food for thought as well--particularly Juliet McMaster's delightful discussion of "Jane Austen's Children," and Linda Robinson Walker's contribution to the increasing debate about the nature of JA's final illness. So, especially if you've never read Persuasions On-Line before, do give it a try one of these January evenings!