Mary C. M. Phillips

One more week until JASNA AGM!

The Jane Austen Society of North America will hold their annual general meeting this year in Brooklyn, New York!

I’m beyond excited.  Beyond!

I thought I’d share some of the awesomeness that will take place with some of my wonderful Janeite friends.  Are you ready?  Okay.  Here goes.

For starters, since this is my first AGM experience, I’ll partake in AGM’s Survival Guide with Marsha Huff, JASNA’s immediate Past President, who will map out successful strategies for an AGM first-timer such as myself.   It’s basically AGM 101.

Then it’s all about sex, money, and power (and you thought Jane Austen was for sissies) with In Search of the Real Jane Austen presented by Annette LeClair (an opening session that will explore Austen’s relevance within those said  topics).

Such felicity!  I can’t wait. By the way, I’m planning to wear my i-darcy tee shirt and will be going solo…so please feel free to say hi if you’re also attending.

Now, more Janeite stuff to drool over.  Ready?  Okay.

As a reader and writer, I’m so looking forward to the following presentation:

The Power of the Printed Word… and the E-Word: Publishing Jane Austen and Her Fiction Progeny.  The panelists include Elda Rotor, Associate Publisher & Editorial Director at Penguin Classics; Deb Werksman, Editorial Manager at Sourcebooks; Mitchell Waters, literary agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd.; and moderator, Valerie Peterson, from About.com Book Publishing.  (There will also be a follow-up Q & A session, which will include several novelists that are also JASNA members).

Shall I go on?

As a few of you may know, I am not only a Jane Austen enthusiast, but also adore Edith Wharton.  Therefore, I’m particularly looking forward to attending this session:

“Nothing Against her, but Her Husband, & Her Conscience”: Jane Austen’s Lady Susan in Edith Wharton’s New York presented by Sarah Emsley (author of Jane Austen’s Philosophy of Virtues and editor of Edith Wharton’s novel The Custom of the Country).

I’ll be in heaven….via Brooklyn.  Fuggedaboutit!

I’ll just add one…more…thing. Get this:

Dr. Cornel West, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University will speak on the topic of “power’ AND Ann Quindlen is the keynote speaker.  Yep.

Beyond exciting.  Beyond!

Hope to see some of your there!