Our Crowdfunding Groups
Thank you for visiting!
Our crowdfunding campaign has ended, but you can still support the Marathon Reading Summer Research Fellowship by clicking here.
We survived! After over 23 hours of continuous relay reading, we read the fiery conclusion of Wide Sargasso Sea at around 8:15 am on May 9. The event was a lot of fun, and we’re so grateful to our 90+ readers, dozens of volunteers, and hundreds of attendees for helping make it such a success.
And we’re so grateful to all of you for helping us reach our stretch goal of $10,500! Thanks to your generosity, two undergraduate English majors and two English PhD students will be able to dedicate a month of their summer to research and writing. We’ll be putting out the call for applications next week, and will update you about the Fellowship recipients soon.
In the meantime, you can enjoy some photos from the Marathon Reading here: goo.gl/3ofdkH
Thank you again for all your support and enthusiasm!
Bethany Johnsen and Cailey Hall
Marathon Reading Co-Chairs
We're just over 3 hours into Jane Eyre and enjoying the beautiful day! Come check us out on the livestream if you have a chance: https://twitter.com/UCLA_reading/status/993887864688599040
Hi amazing supporters,
With less than 24 hours until the Marathon Reading begins, we are thrilled to announce that we have reached our goal of $8000! We are truly grateful to all of you for supporting the Marathon Reading Summer Research Fellowship. Because our initial goal to fund four month-long summer fellowships of $2000 each was relatively modest - especially given the cost of living in Los Angeles - we are excited to announce a new stretch goal of an additional $2,500. This will allow each Fellowship recipient to receive an extra $625 to put towards supporting themselves and their research over the summer.
It’s thanks to your generous support, your social media posts, and your personal outreach to your friends and family that we’ve made it this far! We would be so grateful if you could continue sharing the campaign link, spark.ucla.edu/marathonreading as much as possible.
We also wanted to share today’s Daily Bruin article about the event – enjoy!
With so much gratitude,
Cailey and Bethany
We are so excited to announce that we are now at 95% of our goal! Thank you to each and every one of you for your generous support!
We also wanted to update you about the Marathon Reading itself, which is only a few days away! The event kicks off at 9am on May 8, and you can find us in the Powell Library Courtyard well into the night, as we read our way through Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, followed by Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. The event is free, and we would be delighted if you could join, even if you can only drop by for a few minutes! Here are some highlights:
9am: Reading kicked off by David Kipen
1pm: Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks
1:20pm: Christy Taylor
5-7pm: Free palm readings
7pm: Molly Ephraim
7-11pm: Lobos Truck selling dinner
Midnight: Free pizza for night owls
Raffle items include gift certificates to Burke Williams Spa, Fundamental L.A., Clementine, Diesel Books, and Skylight Books
Snacks, raffle tickets, tees, and totes can be purchased throughout the day
Free all-day activities: Jane Eyre-themed coloring books and the six-word story contest
Special Guest bios
David Kipen is an arts journalist, editor, and broadcaster and the former literature director for the National Endowment of the Arts. In 2010, he and Colleen Jaurretche founded Libros Schmibros Lending Library, a not-for-profit that promotes literacy in Los Angeles.
Jessica Morgan ’97 and Heather Cocks run Go Fug Yourself, a popular snarky celebrity-fashion site. Together, they’ve penned two young adult novels — Spoiled and Messy — and The Royal We, a work of adult contemporary fiction based loosely on the courtship of Prince William and Kate Middleton that was a USA Today bestseller, a People magazine editor’s pick, and a New York Times summer reading list selection.
Christy Taylor is the creative director at Maven Entertainment, and has worked as a producer on numerous Disney television shows and miniseries. As an actress, she has appeared on Married With Children and in the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, among other projects.
Molly Ephraim has appeared on Broadway as Little Red in Into the Woods and Filke in Fiddler on the Roof. She played Ali Rey in Paranormal Activity 2, and starred for six seasons as Mandy Baxter on ABC’s Last Man Standing. You can catch her later this year in Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner.
Hi wonderful Marathon Reading Summer Research Fellowship supporters,
We wanted to let you know that we’re just a few dollars away from raising $4000, meaning that we’re about to reach 50% of our goal! We are so grateful to you for your support, but we still need to raise another $4000 in the next 3 weeks, and we would be so thankful if you could help us spread the word. You could share our page (spark.ucla.edu/marathonreading) on social media, and/or personally reach out to friends, family, and colleagues, and explain why you care about the Fellowship – and that even a donation of $5 or $10 will make a difference.
We also wanted to share with you the first of many awesome interviews with UCLA professors talking about Marathon Reading-related topics. Here's the brilliant Michael North talking about Jane Eyre.
We can't do this without you - thank you so much for your enthusiasm and your support!
We are so thankful for your support! Check out our facebook page for a personalized thank you shout out (fully tax deductible).
Thank you for supporting us! We'll give you a personalized thank you across our social media (fully tax deductible).
You're amazing! In addition to social media thanks, a handwritten thank you note is coming your way (fully tax deductible).
This generous donation gives you the chance to sponsor a reader, if you'd like. We'll thank you - and your sponsored reader - in our marathon reading program and on our website (fully tax deductible).
We'll thank you on our website, in our marathon reading program, *and* send you an official 2018 marathon reading tote bag! (A tax deductible donation of $95)
A copy of Jane Eyre or Wide Sargasso Sea is coming your way - please let us know which one you'd prefer! We'll also thank you on our website and in our marathon reading program *and* send you an official 2018 marathon reading tote bag. (A tax deductible donation of $235)
Program and website thanks, a tote bag, and copies of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea are coming your way. Plus we'll save a seat for you in a reserved section, and give you a special shout out at the Marathon itself! (A tax deductible donation of $475)
Reader, we'll marry YOU! Or, to be more specific, we'll send you all of the above perks AND host a special marathon reading event in your honor - it could be a book club, a reading, or a visit to UCLA's special collections. Let us know what appeals and we'll work with you to make it happen. (A tax deductible donation of $975)