Katherine Mansfield Society News

New book by Jenny McDonnell - Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Marketplace

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +1200

Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Marketplace: At the Mercy of the Public

by Jenny McDonnell

(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
ISBN: 978-0230234796, 232 pages
Release date: 4 August 2010

KMS members are entitled to a huge 50% discount if they order online before the end of September 2010.

Click here for more details

Circulating Genius By Sydney Janet Kaplan

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:56:00 +1200

NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: Circulating Genius: John Middleton Murry, Katherine Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence
by Sydney Janet Kaplan, Professor of English at the University of Washington

We are delighted to announce that the long-awaited volume on Katherine Mansfield by KMS member Professor Sydney Janet Kaplan will be published this October by Edinburgh University Press (EUP). The publishers are offering the book at a significant 25% discount to KMS members for all pre-publication orders and post-publication up to 30 November 2010.

Sydney Kaplan’s previous book, Katherine Mansfield and the Origins of Modernist Fiction remains one of the most important studies written on Mansfield. We are sure this book will be equally groundbreaking. An early Christmas must-have for every KM devotee and scholar!

Special Offer for members of the Katherine Mansfield Society
Pre-order your copy now and save 25%

New October 2010 • HB • 288 pp
Special Price: £65.00 £49.00

We may have thought that pretty much everything had been garnered about that tangled triangle of D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, and Middleton Murry. Not so. After Kaplan, one is looking freshly, more deeply, at how these extraordinary personalities circled and feinted, landed their punches and reconciled. Most surprisingly, she makes her case for restoring Murry to his rightful place in that trio, free from the condescension that has obscured him for generations. Mansfield and Lawrence too emerge in an engagingly new light. What Kaplan does is to present a key moment in British Modernism as a vivid, living, personal exchange. This is good storytelling, as much as fine scholarship.

Vincent O'Sullivan, Victoria University, Wellington, co-editor 'The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield'

If you are a member of the KMS please contact us, kms@katherinemansfieldsociety.org and we will email you your special discount order form.

For non-members and all enquiries after 30 November 2010, please contact EUP directly: http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748641482

On The Rocks by Amy Rosenthal

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:06:00 +1200

On the Rocks is Amy Rosenthal’s brilliantly funny play based on the episode in 1916 where Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murry spent a few fraught weeks in Cornwall with D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda. It was a triumphant success at the Hampstead Theatre in London in 2008 and is currently playing at the Court Theatre, Christchurch, NZ, 17 June – 17 July 2010. Read KMS member Melissa C. Reimer’s wonderful review and detailed interview with the cast here.

Essay Prize 2011

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:41:00 +1200

The Katherine Mansfield Society is pleased to announce its second annual prize essay competition, open to all, and which for 2011 will be on the subject of:

KATHERINE MANSFIELD AND THE ARTS

Please visit the Essay Prize page for more details.

The Katherine Mansfield Society Inaugural Birthday Lecture

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:32:00 +1200

We are delighted to announce that our Patron, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, will be attending this prestigious KMS event in central London at New Zealand House, generously supported by the New Zealand High Commission. The Penthouse is on the top floor of New Zealand House and commands the best 360 degree views across London after the London Eye! A not-to-be-missed event.

Click Here for Full Details

Results of the 2010 Katherine Mansfield Society Essay Prize Competition

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:34:00 +1200

The Katherine Mansfield Society is delighted to announce the results of its first annual international essay prize competition, which attracted a broad range of high quality entries on the subject of ‘Katherine Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence’. The judges – C. K. Stead and Andrew Harrison, chaired by Susan Reid – faced a difficult challenge since, as Reid explains, ‘It was impossible to select just one winner from this outstanding selection, so we have awarded a joint first prize, to two very different but equally engaging essays’.

The two winning entries are by Linda Lappin – on ‘A Parallel Quest’ for an authentic self, which led both writers through similar stages of exploration of ancient religions and philosophies – and by Kirsty Martin, on how Lawrence and Mansfield approached the difficulties of writing about happiness. The winners will each receive a prize of £150 and their essays will be published in the journal of Katherine Mansfield Studies (Volume 2), 2010, published by Edinburgh University Press. The judges have also commended as a close runner up, an entry by Elise Brault, which examines marginality in the poetry of Mansfield and Lawrence.

Gerri Kimber, Chair of the Katherine Mansfield Society, said that ‘the response to this essay competition is enormously encouraging for the growing field of Mansfield studies, demonstrating the quality of scholarship and opening up new lines of inquiry’. She also praised the efforts of Susan Reid, who has worked tirelessly on this project over the last year.

Details of the 2011 Katherine Mansfield Society essay prize competition will be announced shortly.

Katherine Mansfield Play, New Zealand Premiere

Sat, 29 May 2010 19:10:00 +1200

The Court Theatre, Christchurch, New Zealand, will be staging Amy Rosenthal’s play On the Rocks, for a month from 17 June–19 July 2010. This play, which concerns the relationship between Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murry, D H Lawrence and Frieda Lawrence, played to packed houses in London in 2008. Amy is the daughter of British actress Maureen Lipmann and the playwright Jack Rosenthal. For more details on the theatre/play please click here.

Conference Announcement: Cambridge 2011

Wed, 26 May 2010 22:55:00 +1200

Join us for the next Katherine Mansfield Society conference to be held at the University of Cambridge in March 2011. This two-day residential conference will focus on Mansfield and modernism, exploring the exchanges and dialogues between Mansfield and her contemporaries, and the interchange between her writing and other disciplines.

We invite papers from anyone with an interest in Katherine Mansfield and/or modernism. Professor Laura Marcus is confirmed as a keynote speaker, and will be discussing Mansfield and cinema. The author Ali Smith has kindly agreed to present a 'discursive short story'.

Announcements on further keynotes and speakers will be coming soon!

Our very own KMS patron, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, will be giving our post-dinner talk, following dinner in Newnham College

Please see the Conference Page for more details. The deadline for submitting an abstract is 20 September 2010.

Paul Reynolds

Wed, 26 May 2010 22:36:00 +1200

It is with great sadness that we report the untimely death yesterday of Paul Reynolds in New Zealand. It was Paul who originally contacted the Society a year ago and gave us the initial inspiration and ideas for the KM Today Blog. He was supportive of all our endeavours and the Society has lost a friend.

For more information please see the posting on Graham Beattie’s blog

UPDATED: RMIT Melbourne 2010

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:24:00 +1200

Registration is now open for the "Katherine Mansfield, the Underworld and the Blooms Berries" Symposium at RMIT on 4-5 June. We have an exciting programme featuring keynote addresses by Professor Sue Thomas and KMS Honorary President Vincent O'Sullivan, presentations by Susannah Fullerton and Penelope Jackson and a dramatic performance of "Something Childish but Very Natural". We hope to welcome many KMS members and Mansfield enthusiasts to Melbourne in June.

Lecture: ‘Katherine Mansfield and the Bloomsbury Group’ by Gerri Kimber

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:08:00 +1300

Friday 12th March 2010 at 7.30pm Westonbirt School, Tetbury, Glos, GL8 8QG

Admission free (no advance booking required) Retiring collection in aid of The Katherine Mansfield Society

Optional Post-lecture Supper, £15 per head - must be booked in advance

Westonbirt School is a Grade 1 listed Italianate mansion - worth coming for the building alone – the interior is as stunning as the exterior! If you live driving distance away, I can recommend the post lecture supper - most of the UK section of the KMS committee will be there – come and join us! We are hoping to raise considerable funds for the KMS via the retiring collection. The school is almost opposite the entrance to the English National Arboretum at Westonbirt, near Tetbury, Glos. (The arboretum was once part of the grounds of the mansion.)

Click here for a PDF of the poster | Map Link

Katherine Mansfield and The Art of Performance

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:04:00 +1300

Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on Saturday 20 March 2010:

Event 183 Delia da Sousa Correa and Kirsty Gunn 20th Mar 6:00pm

Location: Christ Church £10.00 http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford/?event=8376

Katherine Mansfield was a musician as well as a writer, a "performer" of stories at parties who delighted friends with her dramatic impressions and impersonations. Delia da Sousa Correa, editor of the new Katherine Mansfield Studies Journal, and author Kirsty Gunn, (whose most recent book is The Boy and the Sea) will discuss Mansfield's awareness of literature as a performance art - describing specific stories by Mansfield that evoke musical performance and including a reading of new work inspired by Mansfield that's been written in a similar "key".

This year's Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival runs from March 20-28. To book tickets, go to www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com, or phone 0870 343 1001.

Jacqueline Wilson to be Patron of the Katherine Mansfield Society

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:42:00 +1300

We are thrilled to announce that the internationally acclaimed author, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, has offered to become the Society’s Patron. We can’t think of a better representative for our Society. Jacqueline Wilson’s admiration for Katherine Mansfield’s writing is well known and we hope that her enthusiasm for our favourite author will ensure future success for the Society and its aims.

Here is her letter to all KMS members:

I'm delighted to become the Patron of the Katherine Mansfield Society. I first discovered KM when I was ten, reading a short story anthology. I started 'The Doll's House' and was immediately taken aback by the truth and sharpness of this story. I'd had no idea that anyone could write about children with such style and perception. I read and reread all the short stories throughout my teens, discovered the letters to John Middleton Murry in my early twenties, and then searched high and low in every second hand bookshop for Katherine's journal. The first time I went to New Zealand on a book tour I was thrilled to visit Katherine's house.

I frequently talk about Katherine Mansfield when asked about my favourite authors. I selected an extract from 'The Doll's House' when asked for my eight most special pieces of prose for the radio 4 programme 'With Great Pleasure' and I chose her for my hero in Radio 4's 'Great Lives' programme. When I was on 'Desert Island Discs' I naturally chose the collected short stories for my special book. I recently wrote a piece for the Guardian, again choosing KM as my literary hero. I'd even wear flowering gorse perfume if it was readily available!

-Jacqueline Wilson

KM TODAY: BLOG: OFFICIAL LAUNCH!

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:02:00 +1300

What was Katherine Mansfield Thinking 90 Years ago?

90 years ago, New Zealand's most-celebrated writer, Katherine Mansfield, finished her story 'The Man Without a Temperament', wrote a spirited letter to her brother-in-law Richard Murry and confided to her diary that she feared her husband John Middleton Murry no longer loved her: 'I love him but he rejects my living love. This is anguish. These are the worst days of my whole life.'

A new blog developed by the Katherine Mansfield Society called 'KM Today' Blog will select daily extracts from Mansfield's letters and private writings, and allow responses to be posted.

Chair of the Katherine Mansfield Society, Dr Gerri Kimber, says that the blog will bring to life the innermost thoughts and feelings of a quintessentially modern woman and writer.

'The courage that Mansfield showed at a time of great fear - exiled abroad by the TB which would eventually result in her death, and facing life without her husband - is present in every entry. The letters and fiction that she wrote at this time have justly inspired generations of writers.'

The blog has been set up by the Katherine Mansfield Society (http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.org) and was made possible with a generous grant from The Southern Trust in New Zealand.

For further information, please contact Gerri Kimber (Chair)

KMS Newsletter 4 published

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:12:00 +1300

Issue 4 of the Newsletter has just been published and emailed to all KMS members. 22 pages of news, views, an article on Menton with photos and much more! The newsletter is also available on a member’s only password-protected site.

KATHERINE MANSFIELD, THE ‘UNDERWORLD’ AND THE ‘BLOOMS BERRIES’

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:10:00 +1300

A Symposium hosted by Writing And Literary Studies, School Of Media And Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, 4-5 June 2010. For more information click here.

Katherine Mansfield Studies Journal – Additional copies for sale

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:51:00 +1300

We have extra copies of the newly published first volume of our journal for sale.

KMS members can buy extra copies at the special price of £13 post free via airmail anywhere in the world. A terrific present for friends, colleagues and family!

Non-members can buy copies at £18 post free via airmail anywhere in the world.

(If you were to buy direct from the publishers, a copy would cost £20 surface mail.)

Please go to our shop and pay via PayPal.

New Katherine Mansfield Chronology

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:08:00 +1300

Thanks to the generosity of KMS member Vera Scarelli in Italy, our Society’s website now has a major new resource – a Katherine Mansfield chronology. Vera’s 78 page chronology spanning the years 1888-1923 - the result of months of research - encompasses several areas.

I SEEN THE LITTLE LAMP

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:17:06 +1300

Monday 7 December, 6pm
City Gallery Wellington, Adam Auditorium (entry through rear entrance). Free entry.

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, now known as the New Zealand Post Mansfield Prize, the Gallery hosts a panel session with former fellows Jenny Pattrick, 2009, Jenny Bornholdt, 2002, Elizabeth Knox, 1999, Marilyn Duckworth, 1980 and Damien Wilkins, 2007 (Chair), who will discuss the impact of the Fellowship on their careers, the ghost of Mansfield and other moments that have illuminated their writing. In association with the Winn Manson Menton Trust, New Zealand Post and Creative New Zealand.

http://www.citygallery.org.nz/mainsite/i-seen-the-little-lamp.html

New images now available

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:16:54 +1300

Thanks to the generosity of Jan Kemp, acclaimed NZ poet and KMS member, we have a significant number of additions to our KM-related image database. These can all be accessed by going to our Resource section and then clicking on KM Image Collections. There are now images of Bandol, Bad Worishofen, the Menton exhibition of 2009 and Fontainebleau-Avon (the cemetery and the Prieure). This database of images is being constantly updated. Please do check back frequently!

In addition, we have now put up a gallery of photos from our Menton symposium. If you were fortunate enough to be there and have some photos of the event to share, please send them to us!