{"id":11347,"date":"2025-11-05T22:34:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/?page_id=11347"},"modified":"2025-11-05T22:34:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:34:29","slug":"devoney-looser-and-prof-andrea-kaston-tange-get-crowd-wild-for-austen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/home-2\/the-words-october-2025\/devoney-looser-and-prof-andrea-kaston-tange-get-crowd-wild-for-austen\/","title":{"rendered":"Devoney Looser and Prof. Andrea Kaston Tange get crowd Wild for Austen"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">By Emma Murray &#8217;26<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On the night of Wednesday, September 24th, the back room of the Minneapolis bookstore Magers &amp; Quinn was crammed with the Austen-curious, the Austen-uninitiated, and the Austen-Super-Fan for a discussion about Devoney Looser\u2019s new book, <em>Wild for Austen. <\/em>I was lucky to snag a seat in the front row, where I could see that the author was wearing a very stylish pendant with Jane Austen\u2019s face on it. The conversation was led by Professor Andrea Kaston Tange, who asked questions about the title choice, the defining influence of the people who surrounded Austen, the public\u2019s perception of her, and why she\u2019s had such incredible staying power. <em>Wild for Austen<\/em>, released for the 250th anniversary of Austen\u2019s birth, refutes the idea that she lived a prim and proper life of no event. We learned about the author\u2019s recent discovery of Austen\u2019s brothers\u2019 political leanings, as well as Austen\u2019s contact with an international spy and an opera diva. We reflected on the double significance of the title: the meaning of \u2018wild\u2019 to Austen and a nod to those who are \u2018wild\u2019 about her. It\u2019s not many 250 year-old authors whose biographies can pack a room; and in fact, several members from the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) were in attendance (they call themselves Janeites, by the way.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"385\" height=\"464\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2025\/11\/IMG_1640.jpeg\" alt=\"Devoney Looser and Professor Andrea Kaston Tange pose at Magers &amp; Quinn\" class=\"wp-image-11339 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2025\/11\/IMG_1640.jpeg 385w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2025\/11\/IMG_1640-249x300.jpeg 249w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>I had a blast. I have been acquainted with Jane Austen for a long time\u2014my Mom had me sitting in front of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice before I could form words or pick a favorite Mr. Darcy. I\u2019ve made my way through most of the books, and would definitely feel at home at a JASNA meeting. I also love when an author from Minnesota comes back for a book tour and their community shows up at an event for them. The Jane Austen community was out in full-force, and there was a wonderfully warm atmosphere generated by the kind of group that has the exact same favorite author.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Toward the end of the event, someone brought up the challenge in finding new knowledge in Austen\u2019s world. Seeing the devotion to not only her books but also her life story convinced me that she will continue to be relevant and remarkable. Looser responded, \u201cPeople always ask me if I\u2019m tired of Jane Austen. Not yet!\u201d\u00a0<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Words<em> sends a huge thank-you to guest writer Emma Murray for attending this event and writing about it for this month\u2019s newsletter!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Emma Murray &#8217;26 On the night of Wednesday, September 24th, the back room of the Minneapolis bookstore Magers &amp; Quinn was crammed with the Austen-curious, the Austen-uninitiated, and the Austen-Super-Fan for a discussion about Devoney Looser\u2019s new book, Wild for Austen. I was lucky to snag a seat in the front row, where I [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1049,"featured_media":0,"parent":11307,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11347","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1049"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11355,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11347\/revisions\/11355"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}