Welcome to the Blair Water Literary Society

This is still a project about underdogs. But for 2025, I’ve decided to focus on one underdog in particular: Emily Byrd Starr, of the New Moon Murrays, the protagonist of L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon, one of my favorite books as a kid. This newsletter will keep you updated on the Blair Water Literary Society, a project by me — Erin Keane — about re(reading) the Emily trilogy, and perhaps beyond that as well (we’ll see how things go). Want to read along? Good news! It’s in the public domain. Here’s a Project Gutenberg link.

Montgomery — Maud to her friends and fans — also wrote the Anne of Green Gables series, which is much more widely known (in the States, at least). But I think it’s Emily’s turn to shine at last. Emily, also an orphan, is just as imaginative and dramatic as Anne, but in a darker sort of way. She’s introduced to her dead mother’s estranged family after her beloved father dies, and she has to get used to a whole new way of life as a proud Murray living at tradition-bound New Moon Farm.

Expect links to a coming-soon podcast and other supplemental materials, plus updates on my own literary activities and related news. Also: conversations with guests, questions I didn’t have as a kid, historical and biographical context from the life of Maud herself, and deep dives into all the delightful secondary characters who make up Emily’s world. Light a candle, because we keep up the old traditions here at New Moon.