L.M. Montgomery Research Group

In anticipation of the CTV broadcast of Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (an exact date has not yet been released), Sullivan Entertainment will release six books in September and October. A novelization of the new movie, written by Kevin Sullivan, will be published by Key Porter Books on 1 October (Amazon.ca listing here). Also on that day, they are publishing through Davenport Press reissues of Montgomery’s novels Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island; an audio CD of Anne of Green Gables, read by Kevin Sullivan; and a new novelization of their first Anne of Green Gables miniseries.

Sullivan Entertainment has also released new trailers of the New Beginning movie, both of which imply that Anne wasn’t really an orphan after all. View them at their official website.

Symian Days has posted two blog posts on Anne of Green Gables in Japan: “Little ‘Red Hair Anne’” and “‘Red Hair Anne’ Strikes Again.” Thanks to Yuka for sending these my way.

Also, I have read reports that the 1979 animation Akage no An, which to the best of my knowledge has never been dubbed into English (correct me if I’m wrong), will be or has been released on DVD in French. I will post again once I receive confirmation and all the ordering details.

Jack Zipes, who wrote the introduction to a recent Modern Library edition of Anne of Green Gables, and Jennifer Holm, a two-time Newbery Honor, talk about the novel on American University Radio. To listen to the Diane Rehm Show for 23 Jule 2008 on WAMUA 88.5 FM, click here. Thanks to Yuka for bringing this to our attention.

This week’s issue of Newsweek features Ramin Setoodeh’s article “It’s Still Not Easy Being Green: Anne of Green Gables turns 100 this year but she’s the most modern girl in the bookstores.” It features interviews with Trinna Frever, Irene Gammel, and Kate Macdonald Butler, and more!

The following call for papers was recently released by the L.M. Montgomery Institute. The volume’s editor and publisher have not yet been announced.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Publication to be based on the 8th International L.M. Montgomery
Conference, 25-29 June 2008.

The L.M. Montgomery Institute is seeking submissions for a proposed publication to be based on the theme of “classic” as discussed at the eighth biennial international Montgomery conference, “L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables and the Idea of ‘Classic.’”

Please send the following materials to the L.M. Montgomery Institute:

• Two typed, double-spaced copies of the paper (no more than twenty pages, including notes). Please note: If submitting electronically, one copy of the file is sufficient.
• Manuscript to use MLA style format with internal citations, end notes, and a works cited.
• A disc copy of the paper, in Microsoft Word or rtf format, using your first initial and last name as the file name (for example: the paper by Cynthia Forest would be recorded in the Word file cforest)
• A 100 word abstract of the paper
• A short biography (less than a page) outlining your publications on and interest in Montgomery (and any other relevant scholarship)

NOTE: You are responsible for permissions, and any associated fees, for any unpublished materials or for illustrations. Illustrations are welcome.

Deadline: Submission deadline is 1 September, 2008 but early submission is encouraged. Questions concerning the publication may be directed to the L.M. Montgomery Institute.

L.M. Montgomery Institute
University of Prince Edward Island
550 University Avenue
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island C1A 4P3
Tel. 902-628-4346
FAX 902-628-4305
lmminst@upei.ca

Irene Gammel will sign copies of her new book, Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic, this Saturday, July 19 (2-3 p.m.), at Crawford’s Village Bakeshop in Norval, Ontario. More information is available on the Norval website at http://www.lmmontgomerynorval.com/.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that the LMMRG is celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer. Jason and Yuka and I started the initial discussion list at the University of Toronto shortly after the Message in a Bottle conference at UPEI in June 1998. A decade later, with a membership of thirty-eight people from around the world, the discussion list continues to go strong, and we’re very pleased with the virtual community of scholars and researchers that has developed. And with the new LMMRG website, launched in 2006, we continue to explore new ways to disseminate research.

But with this milestone comes a significant change: Jason and Yuka are now stepping down as co-chairs of the LMMRG, after a decade of service. Jason is leaving to devote all his energies on a number of research projects in early childhood education at Ryerson University, and Yuka, Osborne Collections Assistant at the Toronto Public Library, will now join the advisory board. I want to thank Jason and Yuka publicly for everything they’ve done (and will continue to do) for this community, which would not exist without their tenacity and hard work. I also look forward to the next ten years of scholarly research.

The following calls for papers appeared in the program for “L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, & the Idea of Classic,” the eighth international L.M. Montgomery Conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute of UPEI and held at the Delta Prince Edward Hotel in Charlottetown on 25-29 June 2008.

L.M. Montgomery—Writer of the World. International conference, Uppsala University, Sweden, August 20-23, 2009.

L.M. Montgomery’s world famous novel Anne of Green Gables has continued to attract readers from all over the world for a century. Our centenary conference is a tribute to all of those who have made 100 years of readership possible.

The main theme of the conference is “Reading Response.” We will explore reading experiences of Anne of Green Gables and other works by L.M. Montgomery. One section will be dedicated to Anne of Green Gables in Sweden. We also accept open proposals for papers on Montgomery’s works.

We invite you to send in one-page proposals for papers, together with a short biographical note.

Deadline: October 1, 2008. Send in your proposals to Conference Co-ordinator Gabriella Åhmansson at montgomery2009@ahmansson.com.

Queries? Please contact Conference Co-ordinator Åsa Warnqvist at asa.warnqvist@littvet.uu.se. More information on the conference will be published continuously at www.ahmansson.com/montgomery2009.html.

L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature. 9th International conference, University of Prince Edward Island, June 2010.

In 2010 we invite you to consider L.M. Montgomery and the matter of nature. While multiple romanticisms have informed L.M. Montgomery’s passionate views of nature, her descriptions were complex as she wrote both of and for nature. What are the effects of the representations and images of nature that are crafted and circulated in the fiction of Montgomery, and in that of other writers of literature (especially for children and youth)? How do her narrations of nature shape children and adults within and across cultures? How do seasonality and place function in her life writing? How do particular constructions of nature work in fiction, across such differences as gender, race, culture, and class? What are the cultural and historical contingencies surrounding nature in Montgomery’s work?

In recent years, the matter of “nature” itself has been the subject of much-contested debate and theoretical innovation across disciplines. Nature situates binary relationships that are often represented as hierarchical and oppositional. These include nature and culture, child and adult, animal and human, male and female, reason and emotion, mind and body, modern and traditional, raw and cooked, domestic and wild, urban and rural—among others. How might any of these formulations be examined and challenged (or not) in the context of Montgomery’s work? What does it mean to consider Montgomery as a “green” writer (Doody) or as a proto-ecofeminist (Holmes)? What do Montgomery’s provocative readings of nature offer us at a time of environmental crises and ecological preoccupations?

Please send one-page abstracts and short biographical sketches by June 30, 2009, to:

L.M. Montgomery Institute, University of Prince Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3 Canada. E-mail: lmminst@upei.ca.

An article by Meghan O’Rourke, titled “Anne of 100 Candles,” appeared yesterday on the website for Slate Magazine. Here’s an extract:

Her temper and her gaffes provide fodder for those village members who dislike having a child of “uncertain parentage” around. Yet with time, Anne wins nearly everyone over, as her grace, curiosity, and haplessness catalyze the bloodless community. She enables adults to reconnect with the childish soul within.

Thanks to Carole Gerson, Michelle Levy, and Lisa Lightbourn-Lay for bringing this article to my attention.

Anne of Green Gables contest winners varied

A young Muslim woman originally from Saudi Arabia and a farmer from Ontario are among the winners of a national letter-writing contest in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Anne of Green Gables announced by Penguin Group Canada.
The letters by Sarah Khan of Mississauga, Ont. and Bill H. Wiebe of London, Ont., co-winners in the 18 and over category, were described by judges as “staggering,” “brave” “powerful” and “eloquent.”
Khan found a copy of the novel in a pile of trash left by American soldiers after the first Gulf War and instantly connected with L.M. Montgomerys heroine, while Wiebe identified with Anne even though she is female.

OTHER WINNERS INCLUDE:
- Age 8-10: Rebecca Brooks, Winnipeg, Man.
- Age 11-13: Traleena Rouleau, Ottawa.
- Age 15-17: Hannah Tufts, Winnipeg, Man.
Among the prizes each of the five winners will receive is a $2,500 travel voucher to visit Prince Edward Island.