Nope, not an April Fools' joke!
Thanks to an enterprising student intern from UNC-Chapel Hill, we're taking Austen into a new frontier (assuming it's not banned in the near future. . .).
Victoria Wlosok is a second-year student pursuing a double major in English and Business Administration at UNC. Her debut novel, a YA thriller titled How to Find a Missing Girl, will be published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in September of this year. Victoria will be taking JASP into the TikTok-verse, and giving viewers a glimpse of the locations we'll be inhabiting in June, as well as bringing more Jane Austen content into the world of young creators, befitting our focus on the Juvenilia this year. Most exciting, she'll be able to stream live updates from the symposium for those unable to join us in person!
JASP will be in good company on the app. As The Guardian noted earlier this year, Jane Austen is finding a warm reception among BookTok and young readers drawn to her still-relevant portrayals of living life under a social microscope. When TikTok launched an online book club last year, the first read was Persuasion. Austen has received the coveted title of "Iconic," and #AustenTok is now a thing. Even the Jane Austen Centre in Bath has taken the plunge. Given the generic innovation - and occasional iconoclasm - we see in Austen's Juvenilia, perhaps she would have embraced the clock app herself (*cue daydream music*)
Here's a quick sample of some of what Victoria has in store for us:
For more, follow our TikTok @janeaustensummerprogram!