Thursday, February 20, 2020

May Meeting with JASNA President Liz Philosophos Cooper: CANCELLED

March 12, 2020 --
Owing to the current pandemic situation, we have determined that the wise decision is to cancel the Friday, May 1 visit by JASNA President Liz Cooper. We thank our friends at Vanderbilt, particularly the Department of English, for their willingness to host the talk ("Jane Austen: Working Woman"), and look forward to rescheduling. Liz has never been to Nashville, and we are eager to make her trip a memorable one -- but in the right way [!].

Stay safe, friends, and check out the cdc.gov site for any questions about COVID-19.





About the speaker
Liz Philosophos Cooper, president of JASNA, is a second-generation JASNA member who fell in love with Austen’s work as a high school student. A member of JASNA since 1992, she has actively participated in local JASNA activities and served as JASNA Vice-President for Regions from 2013-2018 and as Regional Coordinator of Wisconsin prior to that. A popular speaker, she is a contributing writer to Jane Austen’s Regency World and co-edits Wisconsin Region’s A Year with Jane Austen calendar. Her talk from the Washington DC AGM, “The Apothecary and the Physician: Emma’s Mr. Perry,” was published in Persuasions 38.

She holds a BA (Communication Arts) from the University of Wisconsin, and worked in marketing before taking time off to raise four sons in Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin (a suburb of Madison). Literature has always been a part of Liz’s life, as her mom was an English major. Liz began a local book group in 1986 that is still going strong, and organized and implemented a Junior Great Books reading program at the local elementary school. She has been an active volunteer in the community, including serving as president of the Village of Shorewood Hills Foundation for many years.

Liz and her husband, Scott, run a marketing consulting firm and enjoy traveling. True fact: they visited Chawton on their honeymoon in 1978! After having three brothers and four sons, it is a great joy for her to have three new daughters through marriage. Her three granddaughters and two grandsons are known to host tea parties with Jane Austen, showing it’s never too early to learn about Jane.

Liz Cooper's talk is funded in part by a grant from the Jane Austen Society of North America.

Founded in 1979, the Jane Austen Society of North America is a non-profit organization staffed by volunteers and dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of Jane Austen and her writing.

Since its inaugural dinner in Manhattan for 100 guests, the society’s ranks have grown to more than 5,000 members in 79 Regions, making JASNA the largest literary society devoted to Jane Austen. Although most members live in the United States and Canada, Austen admirers from more than a dozen countries are also JASNA members.


Friday, January 17, 2020

February 16: Health and Wellness, the Austen Way


We'll embrace a new year's opportunity for self-improvement with a discussion of Regency-era eating and exercise habits, guided by The Jane Austen Diet: Austen’s Secrets to Food, Health, and Incandescent Happiness (2019), by Jane Austen and Bryan Kozlowski.

Our first meeting of 2020 is set for Sunday, February 16, from 2 to 4 pm, at a private home in the Green Hills area of Nashville.

Contact janeaustenmidtn@gmail.com to let us know you'll be attending, and we'll respond with location and parking information.  Please bring a tea-time treat to share; beverages will be provided.

Overview (Turner Publishing)
What can Jane Austen teach us about health?

With a multi-million fan base, Austen is already a “lifestyle” celebrity: imitating her ideas on love and romance lie at the heart of her fabulous fame. In his newest literary romp author, Brian Kozlowski offers a new twist on the Austen way of romancing life. The Jane Austen Diet is the first retrospective look at the healthiest characters in classic literature and what they can teach us today. Jane leaves a trail of solid clues throughout her novels, a framework for embracing health the way her elegant characters do so effortlessly. The Jane Austen Diet shares Jane’s approach to food, fitness, and total body “bloom.”

Although the characters in Austen’s books seem to stay effortlessly fit, the Austen Diet is very real, and science is beginning to prove its remarkable reality. Think of it as the Pemberley version of the Paleo lifestyle – a witty return to Regency food-and-fitness strategies, revealing Jane’s forgotten prescription for incandescent “health and happiness” in the 21st century.

About the author
Bryan Kozlowski is a passionate champion of “lit wit” – bringing the wisdom of classic literature into everyday life. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he’s authored two literature-inspired cookbooks for children and a work on Charles Dickens. His literary insights have been featured in the New York Times, Slate, and Country Life magazine, among other publications.



Enjoying the felicities of rapid motion