Proposals for papers should be no more than 250 words and should specify if you wish to participate in a panel or as part of the roundtable. Please note that there will be only three slots available for the roundtable, so proposers are encouraged to also submit a proposal for a traditional panel paper.
Follow the guidelines below and at this link. Then submit your proposal via email and complete the following form by midnight Aug. 30.
If you have further questions, send them via email to mrsdallowaysymposium@st-andrews.ac.uk
Woolf readers at one of the exhibit and bookseller tables at the 34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf.
Roughly 350 scholars from around the globe have gathered at the University of Sussex for the 34th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf. And coming from the United States, this year’s topic could not be more timely: Woolf and Dissidence.
As an American living under the destructive regime now ruling my country, I hoped that I and my compatriots would be greeted with empathy and understanding by those we met at this conference in England.
I was not disappointed. I and others from the U.S. have been embraced more warmly than ever by the students, common readers and scholars from around the world who have arrived in Falmer, the English town on the outskirts of Brighton, where the University of Sussex is located.
The universal question
Time for talk during a conference break.
Whether from Turkey, Korea, Brazil, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Canada or the UK, our fellow humans and Woolfians share our disappointment in the country I call my home.
And they almost universally ask the question we Americans have been asking ourselves since last November: “How did this happen?”
Sadly, we have no definitive answer. All we can offer are conjectures, theories, and speculations.
Dangerous words
Notice how I am writing here. I am choosing my words carefully. I am not saying exactly what I mean. Instead, I am offering hints. Instead, I am writing in a kind of code.
Why? I am afraid. Not so afraid that I will be silent, because, as Audre Lorde said, “Your silence will not protect you.”
But afraid enough to edit myself, to avoid publishing words on the web that might bring attention from the thought police. After all, I would like to get back into the country of my birth.
Clarissa Dalloway’s dangerous world
Which brings me to one of the best things I heard at the conference so far: Fordham University Professor Anne Fernald’s keynote presentation titled “Dangerous Days: A Century with Clarissa Dalloway.”
In it, she talked about the dangers we face in our current political climate and the dangers Clarissa faced in Woolf’s 1925 novel. Clarissa lost her sister at a young age. She lived through the Great War. She survived the influenza pandemic.
Woolf describes Clarissa’s feelings this way:
She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always has the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day. (MD 8)
I now understand that quote. And I recognize — once again — that Woolf’s words always apply.
Anne Fernald gives her keynote address, “Dangerous Days: A Century with Clarissa Dalloway.”
Even though all but the evening party is sold out, I want to get this event on the record. In collaboration with the Virginia Woolf Society Great Britain, Hatchard – Piccadilly will present an afternoon of events to celebrate DallowayDay 2025, the centenary celebration of Mrs. Dalloway.
Date and time: Starts on Saturday, 28 Jun 2025, 11:30 a.m. BST Location: London – Hatchards – Piccadilly, 187 Piccadilly London W1J 9LE United Kingdom
The schedule
11:30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.: A Bloomsbury Walk
Guided by Clara Jones, author of Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist, we will haunt and saunter in the streets and squares of Virginia Woolf’s beloved Bloomsbury.[Please note: the walk is available only for those with All Day Tickets.]
2 – 3 p.m.: In Conversation with Maggie Gee and Michelle de Kretser.
Hatchards bookshop on Piccadilly will hold an in-conversation with authors Michelle de Kretser and Maggie Gee on Virginia Woolf in the 21st century chaired by Maggie Humm, author of Talland House and The Bloomsbury Photographs.
Michelle de Kretser is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers, renowned for bending fiction, essay and memoir into exhilarating new shapes to explore the boundaries between life and art. In her new novel, Theory & Practice, we meet a young woman newly arrived in Melbourne to research the novels of Virginia Woolf. In bohemian St Kilda, she meets artists, activists, students – and Kit. He claims to be in a ‘deconstructed’ relationship, and they become lovers. Meanwhile, a dismaying discovery throws her work on ‘the Woolfmother’ into disarray.
Amongst novelist Maggie Gee’s glittering oeuvre, key to the conversation is Virginia Woolf in Manhattan in which bestselling author Angela Lamb travels to New York to pursue her passion for Woolf, whose manuscripts are held in a private collection. When a bedraggled Virginia Woolf materialises among the bookshelves, Angela is soon chaperoning her troublesome heroine as the latter tries to grasp the internet and scams bookshops with ‘rare signed editions’. And when Virginia insists on them flying to Istanbul, she not only finds a Turkish admirer, but steals the show at an International Conference on – Virginia Woolf!
4 – 5 p.m.: The Biography of Mrs Dalloway with Mark Hussey and Vara Neverow
For the second panel of the afternoon, the program will mark the centenary of Mrs Dalloway’s publication by welcoming Mark Hussey to discuss his new book Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel in conversation with Vara Neverow.
In her diary, Virginia Woolf wrote that she wanted her new novel ‘to give life & death, sanity & insanity… to criticise the social system, & to show it at work, at its most intense.’
In conversation with Vara Neverow, managing editor of the Virginia Woolf Miscellany and former president of the International Virginia Woolf Society, Mark Hussey discusses how Virginia Woolf achieved this creative ambition: from the first stirrings that appeared in her diary through to the struggle she had in moulding and developing characters and storyline. Once published, Mrs Dalloway was recognised almost immediately as a major development in prose fiction, and Mark traces its remarkable legacy through one hundred years to the present day. Sarah Hall, VWSGB Publicity Officer and Co-Editor of the Virginia Woolf Bulletin, will chair the panel.
5 p.m. onwards: Mrs Dalloway’s Party
There are a few tickets left for this party to celebrate publication of The Hatchards Library edition of Mrs Dalloway with a glass of wine and live jazz with Wayne McIntyre and guests showcasing a repertoire from the 1920s.
There are many celebrations marking the centenary of the publication of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925). Below are just a few.
Celebrating at Monk’s House in Lewes
Virginia Woolf’s writing lodge at Monk’s House
What: Mark the centenary of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway on the very day the novel unfolds, with an intimate event at Monk’s House – the Sussex home where Woolf lived and wrote for over twenty years.
When: June 18 at 7 p.m.
Where: On the lawns beside her writing room
Who: writers Holly Dawson and Charlie Porter will explore the novel’s enduring resonance and power. Olivier Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated actress Lindsay Duncan will perform readings from the novel, bringing Woolf’s voice to life.
Why: This special event, held in partnership with the National Trust, also launches Monk’s House campaign to raise £26,000 to conserve Virginia Woolf’s shawl. Incredibly fragile and believed to be the only surviving item of her clothing, the shawl offers a rare and tangible link to Woolf’s daily life. Specialist conservation work is urgently needed to stabilize and protect it for future display at Monk’s House. Charleston is proud to support this campaign, with all donations going directly to Monk’s House to fund the conservation work of this historic item.
How to attend:Book your £50 standard ticket. This ticket grants you access to attend the evening performance at Monk’s House at 7 p.m.
For There She Was: Centenary Exhibition of Virginia Woolf’s
What: For There She Was: Centenary Exhibition of Virginia Wool’s Mrs Dalloway Through the Eyes of Twelve Artists
When: June 14- July 12. Hours are Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: David Simon Contemporary, High Street, Castle Cary, Somerset, BA7 7AW
How: David Simon Contemporary has invited 12 contemporary visual artists to respond to the novel. This exhibition of paintings, sculpture and ceramics includes work by Chloe Holt FRSA, Steven Hubbard, Victoria Jinivizian NEAC, Alice Mumford RWA, Sue Wales, Frances Watts, Neil Wood, Emma Rose, Mike Service, Richard Twose, Sara Ingleby-MacKenzie and ceramics by the Chelsea Potter. They have come together to create a rich tapestry of works that reflect on the timeless themes and motifs of Woolf’s masterpiece. A highlight will be Mark Hussey’s talk on July 3. He is the author of the newly published book Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel.
What: An afternoon party that includes a gathering and series of short reading
Where: Victorian-style Eliot Hall in central Jamaica Plain. Participants can sign up to read a short passage, but reading aloud is not required. Afterward, there will be snacks and drinks at VeeVee’s garden terrace next door.
What: “A Portrait of a Character: Mrs. Dalloway Turns 100,” a special event organized by the Woolf Arts Archive.
When: June 21 at 2 p.m. Turkey time
Where: Kült Kavaklıdere, Ankara
How: The event will feature a talk exploring the literary and artistic evolution of Clarissa Dalloway, along with “An Exhibition on Screen” curated by Woolf Arts Archive, showcasing a selection of artworks and books inspired by the novel. The program will open with a keynote by Prof. Dr. Mine Özyurt Kılıç, followed by presentations from Atahan Mahir Karabiber and Tuğba Çanakçı of the Woolf Arts Archive team. The event will conclude with a reading session, where participants will share selected passages that give voice to the novel’s various characters.
Those of us who live in the USA and are anxious to get our hands on a copy of Mark Hussey’s new Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel, can now order it at from Blackwell’s in London — at the discounted price of $22.54, which includes shipping.
Hussey’s book, published by Manchester University Press, is the first in a new series from the press called “Biography of a novel.” It offers a compelling account of Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece and marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Mrs. Dalloway.
Background on the novel
Woolf’s fourth novel, set on a single day in the middle of June in 1923, elicited a variety of responses after its publication.
As Hussey explains in Virginia Woolf A to Z (1995), the novel has not only held the attention of critics over the years, but “with To the Lighthouse, has probably generated more commentary than any other of Woolf’s fictions” (175).
Lauded for its use of interior monologue, as well as its poetic language, Mrs. Dalloway (1925) is a reader favorite. It is certainly one I have picked up and read at various stages of my life during the last 50 years, always finding some new insight into Clarissa, along with some new connections between Clarissa’s thoughts and life and my own.
“Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel provides readers with a wealth of information about the novel’s writing, publication and reception. It follows Woolf’s process from the first stirrings in her diary through her struggles to create what was quickly recognised as a major advance in prose fiction. It then traces the novel’s remarkable legacy to the present day,” according to Blackwell’s website.
Hussey will speak about his new book in person at 7 p.m. on July 17 at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Conn., USA. Omar Acevedo, the museum’s literary programs coordinator, will moderate. Get more details and register on the museum’s website.
The Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Pace University in New York is also the founding editor of Woolf Studies Annual. As the general editor of the Harcourt Annotated Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf, he edited To the Lighthouse. His recent publications include Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism (2022).
This is a screenshot from Mark Hussey’s video on Instagram that shows him happily unpacking the first copies of his new book.
