Birthday! Jane Austen Turns 250

Jane Austen (1775-1817), one of England’s foremost novelists, was never publicly  acknowledged as a writer during her lifetime, but she will be honored in a talk by Megan Holt, PhD, at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 16 at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.

This event is free of charge and open to the public. There is no registration.

Austen was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire, the seventh child of a country clergyman and his wife, George and Cassandra Austen. Her closest friend was her only sister, Cassandra, almost three years her senior.

As a teenager, Austen cultivated her imaginative powers and her ambition to get her work published. Encouraged by her family, especially her father and her sister Cassandra, she persevered through years of uncertainty. Her creativity found expression in a range of artistic pursuits, from music-making to a delight in fashion. 

Though Jane Austen went largely unrecognized in her own lifetime—four of her six novels were published anonymously, and the other two only after her death—her name is now synonymous with the period romance. 

• Sense and Sensibility – 1811
• Pride and Prejudice – 1813
• Mansfield Park – 1814
• Emma – 1816
• Northanger Abbey – 1818
• Persuasion – 1818

Austen died in Winchester at the age of 41. Her brother Henry arranged for his sister’s burial in Winchester Cathedral. In the epitaph, her brother James praised Austen's personal qualities, expressed hope for her salvation, and mentioned the "extraordinary endowments of her mind." He did not discuss her achievements as a writer.

Megan Holt, PhD, is the executive director for One Book One New Orleans and the Words & Music Literary Festival. Raised in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Dr. Holt received a B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of Alabama and a Ph.D in English/Comparative Literature from Tulane University. She began her work with community literacy. She received the 2014 Literacy Champion of Greater New Orleans award. In 2015 she was named one of Gambit Weekly’s “40 Under 40” and New Orleans Magazine’s “People to Watch.” In 2021, she gave a TEDx Talk titled “Becoming Part of the Story” on her journey to becoming an advocate for adult literacy. Her efforts were recognized in 2023 with the Light Up for Literacy award, presented by Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in Partnership with Louisiana Center for the Book.