In thematically linked presentations, two keynote speakers Elizabeth R. Epperly and Eri Muraoka contend that learning demands revision, for artists themselves and for those who study them and their work. Click here for more.
– Even though she knew what they were, Epperly said turning over the postcards and seeing Montgomery’s handwriting was “this shock … it’s her handwriting. Because she has very distinctive, and sometimes very difficult, handwriting, and to see that and to see the ink changing where she dipped the pen to write, it’s like treasure to find this.”-
Click here to read my first article in the inaugural issue of the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies: Reading Time: L.M. Montgomery and the “Alembic of Fiction”
-Betsy
A CBC story about how and why Dr. Epperly reimagined Imagining Anne: L.M. Montgomery’s Island Scrapbooks https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-resissue-imagining-anne-1.5236146
In the PEI Buzz : https://buzzpei.com/imagining-anne/
In the UPEI News: https://www.upei.ca/communications/news/2019/07/dr-elizabeth-epperly-launch-compilation-lm-montgomerys-scrapbooks
On June 5th I got this wonderful piece of news from the editors, Dr. Kate Scarth and Dr Emily Woster, of the L.M. Montgomery Institute’s new on-line, open-access journal:
“We’re delighted to announce that the journal is now live at journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca!
Thanks to all of you for your work on and support of the journal. On the website you’ll find our Welcome Message, a video announcing the journal, an article by Elizabeth Epperly (“Reading Time: L.M. Montgomery and the ‘Alembic of Fiction'”), and an article by Julie Sellers (“‘A Good Imagination Gone Wrong’: Reading Anne of Green Gables as a Quixotic Novel”), as well as the static content that many of you have given feedback on. Acknowledgments are here. There’s more content coming soon!
Just a reminder that the journal accepts and publishes submissions on a rolling basis so keep those submissions coming and encourage your colleagues to submit too.
Thanks for all,
Kate and Emily”
Picturing the bo(a)orders: graduating, in 1969, after three years at St. Catherine’s School for Girls in Richmond, Virginia, and composing a life between the lines.
In the summer of 1968, my mother and I made a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island, Canada, the setting and inspiration for L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. PEI felt like home; I vowed to return. Secretly that fall, I applied to only one college: Prince of Wales College, L.M. Montgomery’s alma mater, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. After our June 1969 graduation and much too late to apply anywhere else, I received a letter telling me PWC no longer existed but I could come to the newly amalgamated University of Prince Edward Island if I wished. Yikes! But of course I went and was so early that I was the very first student to register at the new school.
Except for the time I spent in England doing a Ph.D., I stayed in Canada and became a Canadian citizen; taught English literature for thirty years in two universities; founded a research institute in 1993 devoted to the study and informed celebration of Montgomery’s life, works, culture, and influence (www.lmmontgomery.ca); wrote books and articles on Anthony Trollope and on Montgomery; and eventually served as the first woman president of the University of Prince Edward Island (www.elizabethepperly.com). I became Professor Emerita of English in 2007 and received an honorary doctorate ten years later. That is the black-and-white snapshot. The colour version has warmth and a laugh track.
When I graduated from St. C., I thought I would be a writer of fiction and a geologist. I imagined I would live again in Virginia. I assumed I would probably get married and have children of my own. I am so glad life has surprised me again and again! I still love fiction and rocks, and my partner (of almost 30 thirty years) and my step children and step grandchildren remind me every day that Wordsworth was right: we do half create what we perceive. The other half is a gift.
– Betsy
It was an honour to provide the “Afterword” for Benjamin Lefebvre’s new edition of L.M. Montgomery’s posthumously published fiction The Blythes Are Quoted.
– Betsy
Elizabeth Rollins Epperly 