JASNA Northwest - Oregon & SW Washington Region - JASNA Oregon & SW Washington Region

JASNA Oregon & SW Washington Region

You are cordially invited to attend...

3/13/2015

Here you will find your invitation to our 2015 Program event, "Undressing Mr. Darcy." The event will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2015, at 12:30 p.m. at the Holy Names Heritage Center in Lake Oswego. Reservations are required for this event, at $15 per person. Please email our Regional Coordinator, Kim Higgins, with your reservation at the [email protected] email address.

We will also be having a tag sale at the event this year! All proceeds will go to the Tribute Grant fund. Please bring any items ("Austenesque" or representing the U.K. in some way, plus any books you might want to donate) directly to the event. You will place your item(s) on the table marked with the price you deem appropriate.

See below for the public version of the event's flyer. Information for this event can also be found on our 2015 Events page.

More photos from December 2014 event

12/21/2014

Please enjoy the slideshow photo gallery below from our recent December event and birthday celebration for Jane Austen. We had a full house for the presentation and enjoyed wonderful table decorations and scrumptious potluck lunch!

If you would like to contribute more photos -- or captions! -- please contact Jennifer Snoek-Brown, the region's web manager, directly.

Preparing for January reading group meeting

12/20/2014

Cover of The Storyteller magazine May 1924

Elaine and Stephanie are working on the discussion for January’s meeting discussion theme, which is "The First Janeites, Why & How They Read. There is so much interesting material on Janeites and Jane Austen’s books in wartime, they would like you to get a head start in preparation for the meeting!

If you can find the time before the meeting on January 11th, they would like you to read this short story by Rudyard Kipling called "The Janeites,” published in several magazines in 1924. One of those magazines was The Story-Teller, and the cover featuring "The Janeites" story is pictured at right. The tagline reads, "The first story Rudyard Kipling has written for five years, 'The Janeites', complete within."

The story is about a “secret society” of Janeites in World War I. The story is short and will not take a lot of time to read. Enjoy!

The full text of the short story "The Janeites" is online here: http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/DebtsandCredits/janeites.html

Here are some additional notes on The Janeites (very helpful!): http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/soldiers_fra.htm

December event presentation + follow-up info

12/13/2014

Last Sunday, Arnie Perlstein, J.D., JASNA AGM speaker and past Miami regional coordinator, presented a spirited talk on “The Five Other Shakespeare Plays Hiding (In Plain Sight) in Mansfield Park.” He has newly moved to Portland and joined our local region, and he received a warm welcome from the JASNA Oregon & SW Washington members who attended the December event to celebrate Jane Austen's birthday.

JASNA December 2014 presentation

Arnie also writes regularly about Jane Austen's "Shadow Stories" on his blog, Sharp Elves Society, at
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/, and his Twitter page at https://twitter.com/JaneAustenCode (@JaneAustenCode). His personal email address is also provided on his blog profile.

Arnie would love to hear from any members who have follow-up questions, comments, corrections, etc. If there is enough interest (meaning, say, 4-5 people) who are interested in gathering informally at a Starbucks or the like on a periodic basis (monthly or every other month) to toss around Jane Austen's shadow stories with him, he would be very happy to take the lead on that, as long as it never conflicts with any of the chapters scheduled book group meetings or special events, which must come first. Please get in touch with Arnie directly if you are interested.

Reading group discussion on November 2nd

10/25/2014

Our Reading Group will meet on November 2nd (note the date change!) at 1:00 pm. And don't forget that the time changes and we "fall back" at 2 am on Sunday, November 2nd, the day of the meeting!).

We have an east side location this month, at member Stephanie Vardavas's house. If you have any donations for the raffle basket in December, bring them to this meeting. Joanne Graham will be collecting the donations and putting together a charming basket!

Deb Guyol will lead the discussion about The Three Weissmanns of Westport: A Novel, by Catherine Shine. Deb sends us the following to ponder and discuss.

Sense and Sensibility and The Three Weissmanns of Westport -- subjects to ponder and discuss:

The twists and tweaks 3W gives to the S&S characters, situations and relationships
3W romantic outcomes – fitting and funny, or not?
Themes and struggles of S&S – how to feel, how to act, how to suffer, how to be happy – do these find counterparts in 3W?
Money and its relationship to happiness in S&S and 3W
The tone and role of humor in S&S and 3W
The extremes – is any character in 3W as coldly manipulative as Lucy Steele? As innocently goodhearted as Mrs. Jennings?

Sense & Sensibility cover

Three Weissmanns of Westport cover

Photos from JASNA AGM in Montreal

10/19/2014

More photos! Please enjoy the slideshow photo gallery below from the JASNA AGM in Montreal. Over a dozen members from the ORSWWA region were able to attend the JASNA AGM in Montreal, and they had a great time!

You can read more about the AGM in Montreal here at http://www.jasna.org/agms/montreal/index.html.

If you would like to contribute more photos, please contact Jennifer Snoek-Brown, the region's web manager, directly.

RSVP for September reading group discussion of 'Mansfield Park'

9/3/2014

Mansfield Park book

Hello Janeites,

Pauline Beard will be hosting our Reading Group meeting on Sunday, September 14, at 1:00 pm. Debbie Eley and Margaret Christmann will lead us in a discussion of Mansfield Park: Secrets and Lies. Please RSVP to Pauline as soon as possible, and let her know if you will be bringing something for the table (see our Contacts page).

Also, we will be selecting discussion topics this month instead of in November. Please bring your ideas!

Don't forget that carpool rides are available, as detailed on our Carpooling page. Just let us know if you need a ride to the Reading Group.

~ Kim Higgins
Regional Coordinator of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Oregon/ SW Washington Region

RSVP for June 13th reading group discussion

7/7/2014

You are all invited to attend our next Reading group meeting at 1:00 pm on Sunday, July 13. We will meet at the home of our treasurer, Marva Wiebe, in Hillsboro.

Our discussion topic has changed, and this month we will discuss "The Business of Matchmaking," with discussion leaders Elaine Blatt and Stephanie Fleming. We will discuss the novel, The Three Weissmanns of Westport in November, led by Debbie Guyol.

Seattle Gala pics and write-up

7/1/2014

The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Puget Sound Region held a Gala event on Sunday, June 22, 2014, at the Women's University Club of Seattle. Below are photos, as well as a write-up, from one of regional members, Elizabeth Moscoso, who attended the Gala event.

I had the chance to drive up to Seattle over the weekend to attend their gala on Sunday, June 22 (previous post here). It was a lovely sunny day in Seattle, and the venue was absolutely picturesque and wonderful. Plenty of gentlemen and ladies donned their best Regency outfits for the day and were very much admired. The lunch was three courses and tasty. Each table had a “Mary Bennett” to be the judge of a crossword puzzle/ trivia game that was played. The lucky winner got a set of Jane Austen note cards! The speaker was Iris Lutz, and we gave us a little “tour” of house, cottages, manors and estates in England that Jane knew, lived in and was inspired by for her novels. We all agreed: we should do this again soon. I have attached some pictures for your enjoyment!
~ Elizabeth

Local-run tour opportunity for Jane Austen and Shakespeare enthusiasts

6/23/2014

Our Regional Coordinator, Kim Higgins, recently received the following news and wanted to make it known to our members. Please note that it is not a JASNA-sanctioned tour, but it does have local connections (the shop is in Newport), so we are passing this information on as it might be of interest to our regional members.

Bridie's Irish Faire, an Irish shop in Newport, Oregon, is organizing a "women only" tour this year to England entitled "Writers & Royals" (Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and Tudor England - the London leg of the trip). The trip dates are September 25 - October 8, 2014. There are currently 12 women traveling in September, and there are 8 slots still available. The deadline to register is July 31.

You can read more about the tour itinerary and registration information online here at http://www.bridiesirishfaire.com/mysitecaddy/site3/writers_royals-england2014.htm.