Bonnets At Dawn

This week, we are talking to Dr. Jack Orchard and Dr. Anna Louise Senkiw, who are currently working on digitizing the letters of Elizabeth Montagu, noted literary influencer and Queen of the Bluestockings. We also discuss the poet Ann Yearsley, her feud with Hannah More, and how she is like Taylor Swift. You can access Montagu’s letters online at http://emco.swansea.ac.uk/home/ And find Jack on Twitter @Jarona7

This week, we’re welcoming Dr. Fiona Sampson back to the show to discuss her new book entitled Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. We also get into specifics regarding EBB’s family money, illness, legacy, and what should be included in her biopic.

We’re kicking off our mini-season on Sex, Scandal, and Money with an episode about social climbers, upstarts, and Jamaican heirs in Regency England. We cover a lot in this one including Sanditon’s Miss Lambe, Leigh Hunt’s Black ancestry, Charles Dickens, the scandalous life of George Eliot, the Real Housewives, and Alicia LeFanu’s novel Fashionable Connexions with our pal, Dr. Lydia Craig. Minor spoilers for Fashionable Connexions, which you can read online via Google Books.

This week, we’re bringing together Dr. Eleanor Rust and curator Barabara Heller for an in depth discussion about the process behind creating the letters for the Pride and Prejudice and Little Women Letters editions for Chronicle Books. We also discuss Barbara’s job as a set decorator for television and film, calligraphy and postal history.

We’re back with an expanded version of our 2020 B@D Live Literary Ghost Tour! This week, we’re talking about spooky books, the ghost of Charles Dickens, and whether or not Anne Brontë is haunting a certain staircase in New York.

This action-packed episode is our first ever entirely dedicated to Harriet Beecher Stowe. We discuss Harriet’s time in Cincinnati, the unauthorized stage adaptations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and her connection to The King and I. We also interview Kelly and Tammy Rundle from Fourth Wall Films about their documentary Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe, as well as their docu-drama about Stowe, entitled Sons & Daughters of Thunder.

This week, we are talking to playwright Sharmini Kumar about the origins of 24 Carrot Productions, as well as the challenges of adapting Austen to stage, and diversifying her productions. We also read from Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility production diaries, and Lauren realizes that she is actually a Marianne.

This week, we’re talking to Christina Calvit from Lifeline Theatre about adapting Austen and Brontë for the stage.

This week, we’re continuing our discussion about Emily Dickinson and the art of adaptation with filmmaker Madeleine Olnek. Olnek wrote and directed the romantic comedy Wild Nights with Emily starring Molly Shannon as Dickinson. You can find out more about the film, including where to stream or purchase it, at http://www.wildnightswithemily.com/

This week, we’re comparing and contrasting the ways Emily Dickinson has been portrayed on screen in Dickinson, Wild Nights with Emily, and A Quiet Passion. For those that are worried about spoilers - we do a basic synopsis of each, and discuss some moments that we like (or don’t like). Light spoilers for Dickinson, medium for Wild Nights, and heavy for A Quiet Passion.

We’re back and this season we are discussing stage, film, and comic adaptations! This week, we’re talking about literary biopics, Brontë vibes, and comics, with artists Kaley Bales and Glynnis Fawkes. Bales is the illustrator for our book, Why She Wrote, and Glynnis is the writer/illustrator of Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre.

This week, we’ve invited L.M. Montgomery scholar Dr. Trinna Frever back to break down regionalism for us. We start with L.M. Montgomery and The Blue Castle and work our way towards a discussion about Zora Neale Hurston, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Willa Cather and what they all have in common. We also discuss James Thurber, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Wordsworth, Washington Irving Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Fuller, Ernest Hemingway, and Alice Carey, which might be a record for us in terms of names dropped.

Hannah returns to breakdown the final chapters of The Blue Castle! Dr. Sarah Mesle shares her takeaways from the book, and we talk about sex, women’s health, Henry David Thoreau vs. John Foster vs. Susan Fenimore Cooper, and read some listener comments. It’s an action-packed episode.

This week, we are talking about soooo many women writers in relation to L.M. Montgomery including Christina Rossetti, Pauline Johnson, Charlotte Brontë, and Jane Austen (again). Dr. Amber Pouliot joins us in the co-host chair to discuss chapters 16-30 of The Blue Castle, Goblin Market, and sex. We also interview Dr. Brenton Dickieson, host of The Maud Cast, about L.M. Montgomery, John Foster, and Bluebeard. You can find The Maud Cast wherever you get your podcasts, or on Twitter @LMMIMaudCast.

We’re kicking off season 5 with a read-along of The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. This week, we have not one, but two doctors in the house! Eleanor Rust joins us as co-host to discuss chapters 1-15, and Dr. Kate Scarth from the L.M. Montgomery Institute returns to talk about pairing L.M. Montgomery with Jane Austen. We also read some insightful listener comments about The Blue Castle, and discuss Isabella Valancy Crawford.

This week, we discuss YOUR favorite reads of 2020, and talk to Bea Koch about her book Mad & Bad: Real Heroines of The Regency. Stick around to the end for a very special announcement! And warning - this episode may contain a bit of adult language.

This week, we’re talking about the parallel lives of African American writers Pauline Hopkins and Dorothy West, and our hopes for a sexy Harlem Renaissance mini-series. Our guest, Professor Cherene Sherrard-Johnson, is the President of the Pauline Hopkins Society and the author of Dorothy West’s Paradise: A Biography of Class and Color.

This week, we’re going back to 1854 to compare and contrast the diaries of African American activist, educator, and writer Charlotte Forten and Louisa May Alcott. These two have so much in common, and we found their journals and letters highly relatable and excellent reads.

This week, we’re bringing you another literary detective story. We’re talking to OSU Professor Elizabeth Renker and Special Collections Curator Jolie Braun about their work to uncover the life and work of American poet Sarah Piatt. If you’re an Emily Dickinson fan, check this one out!

This week, we’re talking about rare books, forgeries, and biblio curiosities with Patrick Olson, proprietor of Olson Rare Books. We also discuss Phillis Wheatley’s legacy and the new book of poetry by Honoree´ Fanonne Jeffers entitled The Age of Phillis. Find Pat online at www.olsonrarebooks.com