Because I am a Jane Eyre junkie, I want to tell your readers about Sundays With Jane Eyre (SWJE). Located in Philadelphia, The Rosenbach museum is treating Brontë fans to a free weekly program that explores Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel and Gothic tour de force, Jane Eyre. Program Manager Edward G. Pettit chats with Brontë scholars and authors about their current writing projects, and they also discuss up to two chapters of Jane Eyre at a time. Viewers worldwide enjoy the live Zoom broadcast that is also livestreamed to YouTube from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. EDT. Listeners are encouraged to participate in the corresponding live chat. Viewers are diverse and encompass both seasoned readers and novices. Previous guests have included authors Finola Austin (Brontë’s Mistress); Michael Stuart (Walking the Invisible: Following in the Brontës’ Footsteps); and Lucasta Miller (The Brontë Myth). Brontëites who are new to SWJE can catch up on previous episodes via YouTube. Past programming provided by The Rosenbach includes Sundays With Dracula and Sundays With Frankenstein; these recordings are also available on YouTube.

A devoted admirer of all things Jane Eyre and author of the poetry collection The Jane and Bertha in Me (Kelsay Books), I am enjoying the Sunday broadcast, as well as exchanging comments with Brontëites on the SWJE Facebook Group. Part of the fun of writing The Jane and Bertha in Me included rewriting and reliving key scenes from Charlotte Brontë’s beloved novel. I especially relished composing poems like “Reading Jane Eyre,” “Letter to Bertha,” and “The Literature of Prescription.” The latter two explore mental health, spousal abuse, and chronic migraine.

Mr. Pettit usually kicks off SWJE episodes by asking cohosts how they first came to read Jane Eyre. My personal Jane Eyre story is explained below in the opening poem of The Jane and Bertha in Me:

Reading Jane Eyre

I covered it with clear contact paper,
wrote my name in caps across the foredge in black marker.
The bloated book rested on my desk like a rainbow trout.
Mrs. Lloyd poised on the stool, her bangs and bob stiff
like a man in a toupee, face primed with a thick coat
of concealer. She hinted a secret at the heart of the text—
I spotted it in her eyes whenever she laughed,
flung her arms like tentacles, crossed her legs,
private insanity hidden inside her wisteria wool
skirt, tucked out of sight like Thornfield’s third-floor
tenant, Linda Blair’s precursor, the supposed basket case languishing in bed.
I read in bed, on the bamboo love seat, beneath the shade
of my father’s banana trees. I scarfed the pages like pork rinds,
yuca chips, crackers slathered with guava jelly.
I binged constantly, sank my canines into text
while Blur’s Boys and Girls wailed in the background like Bertha
on speed. I carried it for weeks in the outer pocket
of my Eastpack like TicTacs, a compact I’d flip open
during lunch, between classes, before soccer practice—
Bantam paperback lodged between Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights
at Adolph’s bookstore, it’s spine red-orange like papaya pulp.
I plucked it from the shelf and stared at the cover,
the forlorn wedding dress yearning for Jane’s scapula.
her small breasts, the warmth of her hips when she walks
across the bedroom and steps into wedding slippers,
then into absence, the foot’s descent consuming as quicksand,
as the subtle curve of her arch sheathed by glass.

I hope your readers will immerse themselves in the pleasures and Gothic sensibility of Charlotte Brontë’s most popular novel by tuning into Sundays With Jane Eyre; the episodes are a wonderful resource for instructors, creative writers, and fans alike. For more information, please visit rosenbach.org/events/ or email Edward Pettit at epettit@rosenbach.org.

Rita Maria Martinez loves all things Jane Eyre. Her poetry collection—The Jane and Bertha in Me—celebrates Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel through inventive persona poems, which often re-imagine Jane Eyre’s characters in contemporary contexts, from Jane as an Avon saleslady to Bertha as a Stepford wife. Martinez was a featured guest on the 2020 Brontë Virtual Convention as well as on the podcasts Bonnets at Dawn and Lay Back and Think of England. The Jane and Bertha in Me was a finalist for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and a semi-finalist for the Word Works Washington Poetry Prize. The poem St. John Rivers Pops the Question was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The Brontë Babe blog lists Martinez’s collection the Best Brontë Book Read in 2018, and the Diary of an Eccentric blog lists it as the Best Poetry Book of 2016. Martinez’s Brontë-related poetry also appears in Gondal Heights: A Brontë Tribute Anthology. Rita’s current poetry explores triumphs and challenges inherent in navigating life with Chronic Daily Headache (CDH) and migraine. Follow Rita on Instagram @rita.maria.martinez.poet or on Twitter @cubanbrontëite. Copies of The Jane and Bertha in Me are available by visiting Rita’s website at https://comeonhome.org/ritamartinez