Today is Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, and I find myself rereading Pride & Prejudice with the same cheerful delight that greets me each time. Her writing style is just so friendly and inviting, like meeting up for coffee with an old friend. I also greatly admire her pacing and how she can dig into the meat of each scene without veering into laborious overdetail. As a poet, I can’t help but love the play of sound she utilizes and how certain words dance on the tongue; but her language is never flowery or pretentious, and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Beyond her prowess from a technical standpoint, Jane Austen also has the notable distinction of creating compelling characters, who when confronted with their own real and significant flaws, decide to put the work in and fix themselves instead of relying on a romantic partner to do it for them. It’s a Christmas miracle.
Austen’s cleverness is both mind-blowing and ageless across cultures, countries, and centuries. Her literary takedowns still land like drag queen reads 200 years after the fact. And on top of all that, she’s just so funny. The first time I read Jane Austen I was floored by the fact that I was laughing, like really laughing loudly out loud at some of her character eviscerations.
At the most basic level, Jane Austen does a magnificent job of showing us exactly who her characters are, how they grow, and why. This is why the British army handed out Jane Austen books to soldiers during wartime. This is why modern audiences still return to these stories year after year. And why there will always be a new thread on Reddit every week about whether the 1995 BBC mini-series or the 2005 Joe Wright film is the best adaptation (I’m a 2005 girl – excellent boiled potatoes forever), and why we’ll get a dozen new remakes in the years to come. So cheers to Jane Austen, the patron saint of witty women writers, on her 250th birthday.
In continuation of celebrating incredible women writers you should know, please allow me to introduce you to my dear friend and award-winning writer, Heidi Kasa, who has not one but two incredible books that were just released this fall (and make wonderful holiday gifts): her poignant debut poetry collection, The Bullet Takes Forever (Mouthfeel Press), and The Beginners (a flash fiction collection), which won the The 2023 Digging Press Chapbook Competition. The Bullet Takes Forever is a powerful look at gun violence in America, from its inescapable cultural imprint to its devasting impact on a deeply personal level. It’s brave and direct and heartbreaking and energizing. Everyone in America should read this poetry book, and I can’t recommend it enough. Be sure to check out Heidi’s website to learn more about her writing and upcoming reading events: http://www.heidikasa.com.
Heidi’s Books
You can buy The Bullet Takes Forever, by Heidi Kasa from Mouthfeel Press: https://www.mouthfeelbooks.com/product/the-bullet-takes-forever-by-heidi-kasa/78
To buy The Beginners chapbook from Digging Press, visit: https://digging-press.myshopify.com/products/the-beginners-by-heidi-kasa-pre-order
Allison Goldstein 
Than you Allis
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