Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for October, 2021

Several blue plaques commemorate London addresses at which members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, lived. Now a similar plaque — in black — will recognize Talland House, Virginia Woolf’s summertime residence in St. Ives, Cornwall.

Jean Moorcroft Wilson on the doorstep of 46 Gordon Square, Woolf’s first Bloomsbury home during #DallowayDay2018. A blue plaque noting the significance of the site is to the right of the front door.

The news, shared by Woolf scholar Maggie Humm, author of the novel Talland House, came via the VWoolfListserv, as well as social media.

Her message to the Listserv stated:

Virginia Woolf is to have a plaque on Talland House St Ives. Following my research and many requests (for the VWSGB) St Ives Town Council has just voted unanimously in support. I was able, additionally, to secure the support of the local MP. The plaque will be black (in line with Cornwall’s flag) not blue as London plaques. More details of dates/funding/design to follow.

Blue Plaque at 29 Fitzroy Square, London, where Virginia and Adrian Stephen lived from 1907-1911.

Blue plaque noting that Virginia and Leonard Woolf lived at Hogarth House, Richmond from 1915-1924 and founded the Hogarth Press there in 1917.

The blue plaque on the side of the Tavistock Hotel commemorating Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s tenure at 52 Tavistock Square, London. It was draped in blue at its unveiling in 2018.

Read Full Post »

It’s the time of year to lift the veil, take a stroll, stalk the moors, revisit a place you used to live and maybe meet yourself there. Bring a friend, a fiend, a presence, a shade, a ghostly cavalcade to a meeting of uncanny minds as you join Virginia Woolf readers online for Woolf Salon No. 14: Hauntings. The discussion will feature five short stories from five tale tellers, including Woolf’s “A Haunted House.”

Details

What: Woolf Salon No. 14: Hauntings
Hosts: Salon Conspirators
Day: Friday, Oct. 29
Time: 3–5 p.m. ET / Noon –2 p.m  PT / 4 – 6 p.m. Brasilia / 8 – 10 p.m. BST / 9 – 11 p.m. CEST

Five short tales. Five tale tellers

  1. Elizabeth Bowen’s ”The Demon Lover”
  2. Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story
  3. Jean Rhys’s “I Used to Live Here Once
  4. May Sinclair’s “If the Dead Knew
  5. Virginia Woolf’s “A Haunted House

How to join The Woolf Salon

Anyone can join the group, which meets on the third or fourth Friday of each month via Zoom and focuses on a single topic or text. Just contact woolfsalonproject@gmail.com to sign up for the email list and receive the Zoom link.

Read Full Post »

Nothing could be more timely than a new edition of Virginia Woolf’s On Being Ill which will be out in anthology form on Oct. 25 and include essays on illness from writers across the globe, with cover art by Louisa Albani.

Even in the midst of the current pandemic, illness remains an unpopular theme in literature. But in her essay, On Being Ill Virginia Woolf asks whether illness should not receive more literary attention, taking its place alongside the recurring themes of “love, battle and jealousy.” According to the publishers, this book, On Being Ill, does exactly that.

Thinking about illness

This edition serves as a complement to HetMoet’s 2020 publication of the first Dutch translation of Virginia Woolf’s On Being Ill. In this collaborative volume, authors, translators and illustrators have come together from Great Britain, Ireland, the United States and the Netherlands to represent past, present and future thinking about illness.

Noteworthy contributions to this 172-page paperback edition are Deryn Rees-Jones’ preface to Woolf’s essay from 1926 and the introduction to Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals of 1980. Against these, the voices of contemporary authors resonate as they contemplate the interactions between sickness and literature.

Readers are able to begin the book at the end, or might happily start in the middle, as every contribution is a unique, personal piece that offers poignant observations of the world of illness from within.

Book launch Nov. 5, in person and live online

The book launch of this new edition will take place Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. GMT at Perdu Literary Foundation in Amsterdam and will be also be transmitted live online. The event will mainly be in English.

Elte Rauch from Uitgeverij HetMoet will talk about how the book came into being and will introduce the panel members and writers. There will be readings and contributions from Mieke van Zonneveld, Deryn Rees-Jones, Lucia Osborne-Crowely, Nadia de Vries and Jameisha Prescod. Marielle O’Neill from the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain will speak about Woolf’s essay. The evening will be accompanied by music.

Tickets are €7.50. For more information email Elte Raunch: info@uitgeverijhetmoet.nl

Read Full Post »

Virginia Woolf scholar Gillian Beer will do an online reading and discussion of her short memoir covering her experiences of being evacuated as a child during WWII. Titled Stations without Signs, the memoir was published this year by Hazel Press.

The one-hour reading via Literature Cambridge will begin at 6 p.m. BT Dec. 5. The cost is £5 and registration is available online.

Gillian Beer lecturing on Virginia Woolf’s The Waves in April as part of Literature Cambridge’s online offerings.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Literature Cambridge continues to offer live online lectures and seminars on Woolf and many other literary topics, with its second season on Virginia Woolf running this month until May 2022.

A lecture on Mrs. Dalloway via Zoom with Literature Cambridge

The first was offered via Zoom last year.

Each session has a theme and focuses on one book by Woolf. Members of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain are welcome to book at the student price as they join a lively group of Woolf readers from all over the world.

Remaining sessions

  • Sunday 24 October 2021, 6 p.m. Woolf and ShakespeareA Room of One’s Own (1929), with Varsha Panjwani
  • Sunday 7 November 2021, 6 p.m. Woolf and ColourTo the Lighthouse (1927), with Claudia Tobin
  • Sunday 28 November 2021, 6 p.m. Woolf and Character: The Diary, with Ellie Mitchell
  • Saturday 4 December 2021,  6 p.m. Woolf and the Victorians: Tennyson in To the Lighthouse (1927), with Trudi Tate
  • Sunday 12 December 2021, 6 p.m. Woolf and LandscapeThe Voyage Out (1915), with Karina Jakubowicz
  • Saturday 18 December 2021, 6 p.m. Woolf and TheatreFreshwater, with Ellie Mitchell

Literature Cambridge also offers the Women Writers Season, which runs until December.

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: