Feeling Affinity

Keighley News is eager to find a new Emily Brontë, but this might be too much pressure on the young poet:

A 12-year-old writer, winner of this year’s Betjeman Poetry Prize, has been compared with Emily Brontë.
Ide Crawford’s prize-winning poem was inspired by similar moorland to that which Emily used as the atmospheric setting for her own writing. She was this month named the winner of the 12th annual competition, winning £500 and a trip to Paris.
But for Ide, who herself roams the dramatic Pennine landscape near her Macclesfield home, the best part was a comparison with her literary hero.
Scottish Laureate Jackie Kay – a regular collaborator with the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth – said Ide’s poem put her and the other judge, acclaimed poet Zaffar Kunial from Hebden Bridge, in mind of a young Emily Brontë. (...)
Ide said: “Of course I’m not taking the comparison with Emily too seriously - she is a shark and I am a minnow - but I do feel an affinity. Like Emily I draw inspiration from nature and from imaginative worlds built with my brother. Nothing the judges said could have thrilled me more.” (David Knights)

The upcoming events at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in The Telegraph & Argus:

The half-term holidays are fast approaching, and so we’ve got our regular Wild Wednesday workshops to look forward to, so join us on Wednesdays October 24 or 31 to create some Wuthering Heights-inspired monstrous masks – just in time for Halloween!
And staying with the Halloween theme, on Thursday October 25 there’s an opportunity to enjoy the museum after dark, and listen to some spooky tales. We’re delighted that renowned storyteller Sita Brand of Settle Stories will be joining us to share dark tales from around the world
Don’t forget that late-night Thursdays are free after 5.30pm to visitors who live in the BD22, BD21, BD20 postcode areas and also all those living in Thornton, birthplace of the Brontës. You don’t need to pre-book; just bring a child to hold your hand!
Also in the museum from October 25 until the end of the year, is an audio installation featuring the voices of local school children.
Last year, artist and researcher Rachel Emily Taylor recorded the children reading poetry about being in the landscape, and this has been shaped into an audio installation of ‘clock chimes’, with the chimes representing journeys in Wuthering Heights, the routine of the classroom, and how the children felt out on the moors. It will be a lovely opportunity to hear local children’s voices in the atmospheric setting of the Parsonage.
We still have a few tickets left for the following night: ‘Parsonage Unwrapped’, which this month focuses on ‘Tales from the Collection’.
To celebrate Museums at Night, and the 90th anniversary of the museum, our curatorial team will share some of their favourite stories, including the flintlock pistol sent through the post, the Brontë lace found on eBay, and the carrier bag containing undiscovered Brontë artwork. If you want to hear more bizarre stories, join us for what should be an entertaining evening! Tickets cost £22.50/£20 concessions and include a glass of wine.
And finally, there will be an installation in the Old School Room between November 3 and 11. Whitestone Arts, based in Stanbury, is bringing together Japanese artists and young people from West Yorkshire in a cultural collaboration that explores the ghostly elements of Wuthering Heights and Japanese ghost tales.
The installation will feature audio video, performance and set design with landscape imagery from Haworth Moor and rural Japan. I’m particularly looking forward to it, as I’m often asked if I can explain the Japanese fascination with the Brontës, and I’m hoping this will shed some light! Entry is free and the Old School Room is open between 10.30am and 5pm each day. (David Knights)

PBS has released a top ten so far of The Great American Read vote and Jane Eyre is on it. Note that the list is in alphabetical order, not by vote ranking. The Brontë Parsonage Museum has also entered the top 50 Great Northerners (Northern Soul dixit).

Maryse Condé has been awarded the recently-created New Academy Prize in Literature. The New York Times and Scroll.in report:

Born the last of eight children in 1937 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Ms. Condé wanted to be a writer since encountering Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” as a child. (...)
Ms. Condé is the author of “I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem,” a historical novel about a black woman condemned during the Salem witch trials; “Segu,” set in 18th-century West Africa; “Windward Heights,” a Caribbean reimagining of “Wuthering Heights”; and other emotionally complex novels that reach across history and cultures. (Annalisa Quinn)

Her book I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem tells of a black woman persecuted under the Salem witch trials and the author is also known for Windward Heights, a Caribbean reimagining of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

BBC News talks about the upcoming new poetry book by Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy:

Carol Ann Duffy has used her final collection as poet laureate to skewer the politicians who led the UK into Brexit, and Donald Trump. (...) Duffy's official role ends in 2019. Her new collection is titled Sincerity. (...) Sincerity, which will be published on 1 November, also pays homage to figures including Queen Victoria, William Shakespeare and Charlotte Brontë. (Ian Youngs)

A teacher tries to pass her passion for reading onto students on TES:

The literary world had passed me by until I started last year’s course, which covered about 16 of the big ‘uns (which everyone else seems to have read decades ago). But the course revealed a whole new world of delight and fascination for this late starter. Now I'm full-on besotted with Mary Shelley, intrigued by the Brontë sisters and cautiously dipping my toe in Shakespeare. I spend my beer money on theatre tickets nowadays. (Sarah Simons)

EasyVoyage has a list of books and films locations:

 Haworth, Yorkshire and Top Withens - Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë's only novel is set mainly on the cold and dark moors of Wuthering Heights. Brontë spent a lot of her time growing up in Haworth, Yorkshire. She spent a lot of her time on the desolate moors and likely the fictional Wuthering Heights are based around these experiences. The Earnshaw family house is also inspired by a real place called Top Withens, which is an isolated farmhouse, perched on a hill overlooking the bleak landscape below. Today, while a ruin, it is a popular tourist destination and even has a plaque which confirms it inspired the writer. (Xenia Evans)

Women and literature on Vermelho (Brazil):

Por esta subversão dos padrões das personagens, pelo ritmo folhetinesco e pelo uso de uma variação da língua mais próxima àquela utilizada no cotidiano britânico da época, romances das irmãs Brontë, de Jane Austen, de Mary Shelley e de outras escritoras tornaram-se grandes sucessos de público. Contudo, ainda levou certo tempo para uma recepção um pouco mais acolhedora por parte da crítica especializada, que veio paulatinamente e em contextos restritos como o Reino Unido da era Vitoriana. (Translation)

Estadão talks about Virginia Wolf's essays:

O ponto em questão era, segundo Virginia, a ausência de ressentimento. Ainda que Emily Brontë ou George Eliot tenham exercido papel fundamental na trajetória de conquistas femininas na literatura – particularmente Eliot, que segundo Woolf realizara obras de incontornável valor -, foi Jane Austen a primeira mulher capaz de, assim como o bardo inglês, escrever livremente, sem dar a seus livros um tom impotente, ou de lamento pela sua condição social ou de gênero que, nas outras escritoras, parece haver. (Tiago Amorim) (Translation)

InOut Viajes talks about the Jane Eyre performances in Madrid. El Diario Crítico reviews the production:

 Aunque todos los actores cumplen a la perfección con su papel, el de Ariadna Gil es sencillamente inolvidable. Mantener el tono de una adolescente (en la fase en la que vive con su tía política y con sus primos, o en el orfanato), y de una joven veinteañera cuando trabaja como institutriz o maestra, es sencillamente magistral. Y lo hace con el cuerpo, con la voz y con toda el alma. Un trabajo extraordinario que, probablemente, constituya el mejor de la carrera de Ariadna. (José-Miguel Vila) (Translation)

Woman (Spain) interviews writer Anna Todd:

Clara Hernández: De tu saga anterior, ‘After’, se vendieron 11 millones de libros. ¿Es mentira que ya no se lea o es que has hecho que quienes no leían, lo hagan?
Creo que son ambas cosas. He conocido a gente que antes de leer 'After' no había leído un libro en su vida a menos que se lo hubieran mandado de deberes. Recuerdo a unas chicas que, después de leerlo, comenzaron a interesarse por la lectura y no solo por la saga de 'After', sino por ‘Cumbres borrascosas’, ‘Persuasión’… un montón de clásicos. (Translation)

Página Siete (Bolivia) interviews the writer Magela Baudoin:

Yerma.– Una palabra que siempre me trae a las hermanas Brontë, a Cumbres borrascosas o a Jane Ayre (sic). Mi abuela me contaba de ellas, que expandían el mundo y derrotaban el viento arrasador de la vida a pura imaginación. (Lucía Camerati) (Translation)

One on One interviews writer Debra Gaskill:

Who are three of your favorite authors?
Charlotte Brontë tops the list—I reread Jane Eyre every year. Ann Rule is second and Edna Buchanan is a close third.

 September in the Parsonage garden on the Brontë Society's website.