Flat Jane Austen Turns Four

. . . And Visits All 50 States!

by Michele Larrow, FJA’s Travel Coordinator

Header Image: FJA at the Burchart Gardens, Brentwood Bay, BC, at 2022 AGM in Victoria, photograph by Roseann Thompson

Flat Jane Austen (FJA) is a project our region started in August 2020 as a way for Janeites to connect during a time when many people were home due to the Covid lockdown. We made many copies of FJA over the past four years, in the original 6 inch size and the later 9 inch size. She was mailed to about 100 different hosts. Our hosts have taken her to teas, ballgames, dances, hiking, museums, libraries, and JASNA events. They shared pictures of FJA’s adventures on our website FJA page, in our Flat Jane Austen Facebook Group, or through other social media using #FlatJaneAusten or #FlatAusten hashtags. This spring, FJA has finally made it to all 50 states. She also has visited several Canadian provinces and been to much of Europe, as well as Iceland and Taiwan. FJA is still going strong. If you would like to host or re-host FJA, see our website FJA page and fill out the sign-up form. To celebrate her milestone of going to all 50 states, we’d like to highlight a few FJA hosts (in alphabetical order) who have brought us along on some fun adventures.

Lisa Angel, Georgia

Lisa has hosted FJA twice and took her all over the Atlanta area and other parts of Georgia–going to concerts, lacrosse games, a professional bull riding show, the CDC museum, and river tubing in Helena. She has also taken FJA to vacations in Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Utah. Perhaps most importantly, Lisa’s pup, Mr. Bingley, is a huge FJA fan.

Kirk Companion, Massachusetts

Kirk is a region member who heads the “Boston Branch” of the FJA project, with his own FJA. He spreads the word about FJA on his Austen in Boston social media. He has visited the most states of any host (28) and was the first to take FJA to visit Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota (the last three states were numbers 48, 49, and 50 on our map). Kirk also loves to travel to JASNA meetings in other states, including Alabama, Colorado, New York, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Washington, and New Jersey.

Roseann Thompson, New Mexico

Roseann is a region member from New Mexico who has taken FJA to the 2021 AGM in Chicago, the 2022 AGM in Victoria, BC, and the 2023 AGM in Denver, CO. Through Roseann’s frequent postings from the AGMs, FJA helped those of us who aren’t able to attend share some of the excitement of being there. Roseann also has taken FJA to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (on mule), to the Four Corners Monument (NM, AZ, CO, and UT), and to Scotland with a stopover in Iceland.

Jeanette Watts, Illinois

In the spring and summer of 2022, Jeanette took FJA on her travels to several states including Delaware (first time visit), Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas. FJA had lots of fun and attended balls, went to museums, and visited historic sites.

“A Thousand Thanks”

Thank you to all who helped with FJA: Jane Provinsal, co-RC for our region, thought of the FJA project and has created many wonderful posts with FJA for our social media. Debra Peck, region secretary at the time, designed and made up many copies of the original FJA. Christina Boyd, of The Quill Ink, helped to publicize our project and invited many JAFF authors to join our FJA Facebook group, some of whom have also hosted FJA. Many JASNA regions, including Georgia, Maryland, Hawai’i, Middle Tennessee, Utah, Metropolitan Kansas City, North Nevada, Wyoming, Vancouver, BC, and Puget Sound, have hosted FJA. Finally, thanks to everyone who has hosted FJA and those who followed along with her adventures.