The Latest from Devoney (14 June 2025)
Global Austen, Wild for Austen Events, and Something Not Austen
Dear Jane-Friends:
I understand there is some other 250th being celebrated today, but my eyes are still squarely on Jane Austen’s year. It’s exciting to see how many exhibitions, adaptations, and events are popping up. I’ve loved the photos I’ve seen this week of the just-opened exhibition, “A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250,” at the Morgan Library in New York, co-curated by the fabulous Juliette Wells and Dale Stinchcomb. I may not get to see it in person before it closes on September 14th, so I’d be especially happy to hear you eyewitness accounts.
My reason for not getting there is at least a solid one. I’m heading to the UK for The Global Jane Austen Conference, to be held from July 10-13 at the University of Southampton. Today the full program (or, rather, programme) was released, and the list of speakers is mind-blowing. I’m so grateful to Profs. Gillian Dow and Katie Halsey for putting together this incredible set of people and experiences. My head is spinning just looking at the list of speakers, topics, and countries represented.
I’ll get to share ideas on Austen and Austeniana with, oh, about 125 delegates, many of whom also teach, research, and write about Austen for a living. We hail from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. I’ve never been a part of anything like it in Austen studies. I’m not sure there’s ever been anything like it? There was a formative Austen 200th anniversary meeting in Canada in 1975, but it was neither this big nor this global. At least one person, the inimitable Juliet McMaster, will have been at both meetings, 1975 and 2025. Wild.
WILD FOR AUSTEN BOOK TOUR AND EVENTS
Speaking of wild—which I will be doing pretty much non-stop for the next six months—my book Wild for Austen will be out on Sept. 2nd and is now available for pre-order. St. Martin’s Press has been lining up a wonderful, whirlwind set of book tour events. It will kick off with a launch party on 2 Sept. at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. That’ll be followed by planned book tour events in Dallas, Tulsa, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Baltimore, with other possible cities still in the planning stages for later in the fall. I can’t wait to share the full slate of dates and places.
One incredible event I’m able to share details about with you now is the JASNA Georgia Region and Emory University Rose Library’s day-long “Celebrating 250 Years of Jane Austen,” planned for Saturday, September 20th. Organizer Renata Dennis has put together something wonderful, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
NOW READING—AND WAITING TO READ
Do you know that there are books just out, or about to be out, that are not about or by Jane Austen? Hahaha. One I’ve been savoring is Rebecca Solnit’s new essay collection, No Straight Road Takes You There. It, along with her newsletter, Meditations in an Emergency, is just what I need right now—or what I need that’s not Austen. Maybe you’ll find the same is true for you, if you’re not already reading it?
I’m also eagerly awaiting Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, to be published in July. Check out the excerpt in The New Yorker. Gripping. I feel incredibly lucky to know both of these amazing women and admire their work. Oh, the places Jane Austen will take you!
I’ll be writing you again soon enough with news of Jane-tastic-adventures and archive-hopping in England. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the quotation I chose for June 14th in The Daily Jane Austen. It seems oddly appropriate: “A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.”
Your humble and occasionally obedient servant,
Devoney
P. S. Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend who might want to join us. How quick come the reasons for forwarding emails we like!
P. P. S. Do send me things you think I ought to be noticing now? And here are more places to find me going on and on about Austen, books, strong women, and other favorite things.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devoneylooser/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/devoney.looser/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devoney
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/devoney
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/devoney.bsky.social
Twitter/X: https://x.com/devoneylooser