Happy Birthday, Audrey!

As you may have noticed, this is quite the birthday season for friends of Robert Frost’s Banjo, & today we celebrate the birthday of our own SoCal Special Correspondent, Audrey Bilger. Audrey’s friendship with Eberle goes back to their Charlottesville days, & included everything from waitressing to Wuthering Heights; they shared a love of women writers & feminist theory, & both share an effervescent wit. I’ve also known Audrey since those days, & since Eberle & I have been together I’ve gotten closer to Audrey & consider her a very good friend: a witty, smart & compassionate person who is always there in good times & bad. She is also, let me assure you, a formidable Scrabble opponent!

Of course, Robert Frost's Banjo readers have been treated to some of Audrey's wit in her contributions to this blog, & I'm happy to announce that some of Audrey's essays in the Women's Art is Women's Work are slated to appear over the several week, beginning with tomorrow's offering intriguingly titled Do You Want to Know a Secret. Given the title, I won't divulge much, except to say it concerns the great British writer, Fanny Burney—an author Audrey is eminently qualified to write about, as her teaching specialty is 18th & 19th century British women writers, & she has published Laughing Feminism: Subversive Comedy in Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen (Wayne State University Press).

I'm very happy to include Audrey as one of the contributors to Robert Frost's Banjo, but more happy to call her a friend. So: many happy returns Audrey—hope you have a lovely day! & dear readers, please check in tomorrow morning for Audrey's Do You Want to Know a Secret.