Talk:Jane Severance

Jane Severance has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Jane Severance is the main article in the Jane Severance series, a good topic. This is identified as among the best series of articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 12, 2023	Good article nominee	Listed
August 8, 2023	Good topic candidate	Promoted

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on March 28, 2023.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that all three of Jane Severance's books for young readers include lesbian characters, including her first book, which was the first picture book to include such characters?

Current status: Good article

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Conflict of interest + inquiry

I am a close friend of Jane Severance's. I don't know who has been writing and editing the Wikipedia articles for two of her books: When Megan Went Away and Lots of Mommies, but I noticed that this Jane Severance page only links to one of them. And, rather, doesn't just link, but redirects. I edited a line on Leslea Newman's page, which mentions Jane, by linking Jane's name to this Wikipedia page. But, of course, I see now that it redirects to When Megan Went Away. Both of Jane's book articles include background on the author.

QUESTION: Is someone already planning to move some of that background to (or duplicate it on) this Jane Severance page? If so, great! I was thinking of requesting a "Jane Severance" article, given that my close relationship might be discovered and frowned upon if I wrote it myself, but with this page already existing I can't request a new one. I wouldn't want to, either, if plans are in place! Hkthorn (talk) 19:07, 29 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Hkthorn, thanks for writing! I'm sorry I only just saw this. I'm Collin (aka User:Bobamnertiopsis) and I've been responsible for much of the work on the two of Jane's books that have articles and now this new article too. Do you happen to have any photos of Jane we might include with this article that you'd be willing to upload with a free license? Thanks for being in touch and please let me know if you have any questions. —⁠Collin^{t c} 00:19, 26 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Collin, this is Jane Severance answering (I think and hope) through Hazel Thornton's account. (Because I can't figure out how to do it another way.) I got a message from you a while ago but put off answering it. I have ADHD, which means I am not always right on top of things. Anyway, the message is gone from my Facebook account and I am hoping this will get through to you. I am enclosing my email address. I have lots of questions and lots of things to tell you and yes, I do have some photos. Sorry I didn't answer sooner. I really appreciate all the work you have done on articles about me and my books. <deleted>. 75.174.222.49 (talk) 18:46, 12 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

GA review

Passed. —Kusma (talk) 20:24, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

This review is transcluded from Talk:Jane Severance/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Kusma (talk · contribs) 13:07, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Will review this one. Expect comments over the next few days. —Kusma (talk) 13:07, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Section by section review

Lead: not very long but seems to summarise what we know. Is all of which include lesbian characters truly correct? There seems to be slight disagreement about the sex lives of the Lots of Mommies. But Severance herself says her works all include lesbian characters (you could mention this in the debate about the Mommies book).

It's a good question. I've included that Severance views the work as having lesbian characters in the body, but it is also true that some disagree about LoM's inclusion. That said, the scholars who've engaged most heavily with Severance and her work (Crisp, Miller) seem to hold that LoM depicts lesbians/lesbian home life. I could maybe add a note to indicate the disagreement?
Not sure that needs to be discussed in the lead (if you want to, you could reformulate and again tell us that she says the chaarcters are lesbians. But I won't insist on that).

Early life: The sentence about the father could perhaps be split and simplified.

Done.

Some more of the content on p. 90 of the interview could be used here, for example grandparents and an aunt who loved me as well. I grew up in a family where reading was valued above all.

Done.

Last paragraph is very short, perhaps combine paragraphs?

Great idea, done.

Career: is there anything at all to be said about reception for Ghost Pains?

Poked around; it's mentioned four times in Feminist Bookstore News but only really in blurbs, not in reviews. I've un(red)linked the title for now since I don't think I'm able to make the case that it's a notable work per our standards.
Too bad.

Personal life: I would consider dropping the seamstress (or combining it with other self-descriptions, like the "fix anything"/"plants out of dumpsters" on p. 89) and not having a separate section for so little information.

Incorporated seamstress above, otherwise trimmed.

Legacy: I am not sure this is fair to Newman. Severance clearly states it was "an honest mistake" and Crisp explains "hustler" in a footnote. Newman also openly admits that Severance was right. The way it is presented in the article makes it sound more accusing from Severance and more defensive from Newman than what I see in their own words.

Astute. I've rewritten to match the Crisp interview more fully.
That's much better.

Bibliography: Consider adding |ref=none to avoid generating Harv warnings for the people with User:Trappist the monk/HarvErrors enabled.

Done.
I think we misunderstood each other; I have applied the fix myself.

General comments and GA criteria

Nice little article about a pioneer. Sad there is no image (you could try to ask her to donate one? [1])

Thanks! I'm in email contact with her but haven't had any luck so far.

References nicely formatted.

😊

I am a bit concerned how much of the information comes from an interview with Severance and is essentially self-reported. Do other scholars at least cite this interview for personal information about Severance?

Yeah, the chief two sources of bibliographic details are the 2009 (pub. 2010) Crisp interview and the 2018 (pub. 2022) Miller interview. The Miller pub. is still new so hasn't been cited yet but Miller, who also heavily engages with Severance's work, cites the Crisp interview several times.
If Miller (I don't have access to her book) also believes in the bio, that's good enough for me.

Can't see any OR or copyvio issues.
Article is reasonably broad given how little we know; focussing on her works is probably the way to go
No stability concerns
One neutrality question in the prose review above (Newman).

Addressed (I hope).

That's it I think. Nice work on her and her books. —Kusma (talk) 10:31, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the thoughtful review, Kusma. Please let me know if there's any other work I can do on this. —⁠Collin^{t c} 20:05, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think we're done here, good responses and edits, A Good Article. —Kusma (talk) 20:22, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Good Article review progress box

Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV ()

3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant ()

Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.