"Jane Austen for Smarties" author Joan Klingel Ray will speak Thursday at UW.
Renowned Jane Austen scholar Joan Klingel Ray will speak Thursday, Oct. 7, at 4:10 p.m. in the University of Wyoming College of Business auditorium.
Ray, professor of English and a president's teaching scholar at the University of Colorado, will discuss "Jane Austen for Smarties" as part of the L.L. Smith Speakers in the UW Department of English.
The UW Bookstore will host a book signing after the lecture. For more details, call Eric Nye, Department of English, (307) 766-3244.
Ray, in 2004, appeared on the A&E biography of the English novelist and two years later published "Jane Austen for Dummies" (Wiley), reviewed in the Financial Times by the distinguished critic John Sutherland, professor of modern literature, University College, London.
"This is an eminently useful book," wrote Sutherland. "This volume advertises itself as ‘the fun and easy way to understand and enjoy' Jane Austen. It outlines the Austen milieu, the ‘real world' of her novels. It's done in a snappy, ‘I'm on your level' way."
Ray served three terms as president of the Jane Austen Society of North America (2000-2006) and edited the forthcoming "Dictionary of Literary Biography" volume on Austen. Her publications and interviews form the basis of supplementary features on the DVDs of "Becoming Jane" and "The Jane Austen Book Club" (both 2007).
Earlier this year she was the guest professor for the Barnes and Noble online blog discussions of Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" (1811) and "Emma" (1816).
