Reflecting on Jane in June

Jane in June. Goodbye my friend! After a year of planning, my Jane in June programs are finished. Now it’s time to reflect on what I learned and how excited I am to continue reading and learning about my favorite author.

I started working at my library a year ago, almost exactly. One of my first programming ideas was a tea and talk about Jane Austen. My director got a hold of the idea and told me to expand it, thus Jane in June was born. I had three programs.

The first was my amazing impersonator, Debra Miller, who is a learning theater actor. She wrote her one woman play of Jane Austen mainly from the letters Jane and Cassandra, Jane’s sister, wrote to one another. Not only did Debra look like Jane, but her performance was mesmerizing. She did a fabulous job of interpreting Jane into this performance. She started her performance as Jane after Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park were published and she started becoming a minor celebrity.  I learned a lot about Miss Austen’s life and inspiration, her struggles and triumphs. It was very inspirational and Debra did a great job of talking up books for people to check out, which they did. It always seems like pulling teeth to get people to check out the books we bring to programs.

The second program was a “Jane Austen Tea”. I bought three different kinds of tea and had 5 tea pots. I asked all the attendants to bring a dish to pair with tea. About 12 women came and everyone brought something delicious! Luckily, a coworker was available to make the tea and distribute it throughout the program. We ate, drank, and chatted about Jane Austen’s books, her life, her inspiration, fan fiction, the lasting impressions she has left, and a load of other topics. The women truly enjoyed the event and I was able to let everyone take a free book home. I loved this event. It was not too much work to set up and was low cost. What goes better together than beverages and books!? The best part was, since it was a rainy cooler day, all the women commented on how happy they were to have tea. Truly fun and fabulous. I will certainly do this again and highly suggest you to try it with friends, family, or patrons!

My third and final program was a presentation called “Austen in Our Time”. A local woman, Amy, who is a minor Jane Austen expert, JASNA member (Jane Austen Society of North America), writer, and blogger along with working at a Jane Austen bookstore, was my presenter. She discussed the rise of Austen’s fame through sequels, variations, plays, and finished works. Although people were writing nonfiction and fiction books about Jane Austen and her characters before the 1990s, it was after Colin Firth jumped into the lake that Austen fan fiction and nonfiction really took off. In fact, 1995, saw a slew of Jane Austen books turned into movies, which really launched her into our generation. Amy talked about why she believes Austen above all other authors has had such a strong reception and become such a booming force. She also brought books and other materials from the store to sell, which the patrons enjoyed.

Jane in June was a success. I wish more people would have attended the Jane Austen impersonator, but those who did truly adored it and learned a lot. This was my first solo set of programs and has gone on to inspire another author set of programs next year, Edgar Allen Poe. I’ll be going from satire and romance to angst and creepiness. Sounds like the decline of a lot of my romantic relationships.