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Archive for the ‘Woolf societies’ Category

How the Virginia Woolf community can aid Turkey

Posted in Woolf societies, Woolfians Connect, tagged , , , , , on Monday 13 February 2023| Leave a Comment »

Virginia Woolf asked questions of the moment: How can we prevent war? What does a woman need to be able to write fiction? Now, with the death toll from the Feb. 6 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria currently at 36,000 and climbing, the Woolf community asks the question of this moment: How can we help?

Ben Hagen, president of the International Virginia Woolf Society, reached out to Mine Özyurt Kılıç of Turkey, who is involved in the formation of the non-profit Virginia Woolf Studies in Turkey Initiative, to ask just that question.

She shared information provided by two colleagues, and we have copied it below. It includes frightening facts about the 7.8-magnitude devastating quake, along with information about how to help.

Facts about the earthquake

  • The earthquake that hit the region was equal to 130 atomic bombs.
  • It hit 10 major cities in Türkiye and Syria.
  • Nearly 7,000 buildings have been confirmed to have collapsed.
  • The area affected by the Turkish/Syrian earthquake is the size of the entire United Kingdom.
  • There has never been another earthquake that affected such a large area in history.
  • The biggest reason for the destruction is that the earthquake was very close to the surface and therefore the damage to infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports is very high.

How we can help

According to Mine’s colleagues, the best way to support people in the devastated areas is to donate to the following organizations:

AHBAP is a Turkish organization that describes itself as a “cooperation movement that works with value systems based on solidarity, sharing, and belonging.” The network provides “all kinds of aid” to those in need, including cash transfers and in-kind support. Through their support, they seek “to create contemporary and sustainable networks of cooperation and solidarity” that use new models that ensure they “protect local cultures.” Donations can be sent through their website as well. The organization has also created and will update a list of community centers and businesses that have opened their doors to those seeking refuge.

AFAD is Türkiye’s official disaster and emergency management authority.
This website has some useful information as well: https://www.afetbilgi.com/. Be sure to click on the small box in the middle near the top to choose your language preference.

Please share this information with your personal and academic circles/groups/networks as much as possible to help the victims! Please raise awareness on social media!

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New non-profit expands Virginia Woolf’s presence in Turkey

Posted in A Room of One's Own, events, global series, Turkey, Woolf societies, Woolfians Connect, tagged , , on Saturday 28 January 2023| 6 Comments »

Poster for the Virginia Woolf in Turkey symposium, “Giving Voice to Woolf,” held Jan. 28, 2023, in Turkey. The symposium included an exhibition, a podcast series, and a performance — all focused on “A Room of One’s Own.” It was held in n collaboration with the British Council Turkey and the Museum Evliyagil.

Virginia Woolf is read and studied worldwide, but she has a newly expanded presence in Turkey due to the non-profit Virginia Woolf Studies in Turkey Initiative.

The organization promotes the study of Woolf and her work, along with the Bloomsbury Group, modernism, and the afterlife of Woolf in Turkey.

According to organizers, “It aims to create further links between Turkish specialists and their counterparts abroad. The Initiative welcomes scholars, writers, translators, artists, performers, publishers, students, and people who share a strong interest in Woolf’s works.”

The non-profit is dedicated to advance Virginia Woolf studies in Turkey from a comparative and critical perspective in several ways:

  • by convening symposiums, conferences, and lecture series; (See the photo at right for details about the first, held today.)
  • by publishing Woolf related studies; and
  • by organizing various informal gatherings and workshops.

Topics to explore

The Initiative will provide a platform for an intellectually rich, open, and collaborative working atmosphere for the Woolfians to explore the following:

  • Virginia Woolf’s works (fictional and non-fictional)
  • Virginia Woolf’s biography
  • Virginia Woolf as a reader, critic, and publisher
  • Virginia Woolf and feminism
  • Virginia Woolf as a philosopher
  • Critical perspectives on Virginia Woolf
  • Afterlife of Virginia Woolf in Turkey
  • Translations of Virginia Woolf’s works into Turkish
  • The Bloomsbury Group and art
  • Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries
  • Tracing Virginia Woolf in Turkish Literature
  • Virginia Woolf in the context of the early twentieth century Britain
  • Other relevant subjects

Co-founders of the non-profit are Mine Özyurt Kılıç, coordinator of the 2017 one-day exhibit at Harvard University, “A Press of One’s Own: Celebrating 100 Years of Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press,” and Demet Karabulut Dede.

Join and get more information

The initiative welcomes new members and guests. To join the mailing list and/or get more information, email: info@virginiawoolfturkiye.org or Mine Özyurt Kılıç: mine@virginiawoolfturkiye.org or Demet Karabulut Dede: demetkrblt@virginiawoolfturkiye.org

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Share your favorite Woolf quote

Posted in quotes, Woolf societies, tagged , on Monday 8 July 2019| Leave a Comment »

The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain is asking you to share your favorite Woolf quote by posting it on their Facebook page or submitting it via email. Here is the scoop:

“Send in a Woolf quotation, from any of her books. We’ll compile a shortlist and ask you to vote for one of them, and the winning quotation will be posted on this page. It will be interesting to see whether it’s the same as last year, or a different one.

If you can’t quite remember the exact words, we’ll probably be able to help you out – don’t worry if you get them slightly wrong.

So get out your Woolf books and hunt down your favourite quotation (or one of them). You can put it in a public post or email your quote to smhall123@yahoo.co.uk”

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Annual bulletin of Italian Virginia Woolf Society is out

Posted in Italian Virginia Woolf Society, Woolf societies, tagged , , , , on Monday 12 February 2018| Leave a Comment »

Bloomsburiana, the first issue of the Annual Bulletin of the Italian Virginia Woolf Society, is out.

I was lucky enough to meet Elisa Bolchi and Sara Sullam, two members of the new society, at the 27th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf last June in Reading, England. The following month, Elisa, who is the society’s president, sent Blogging Woolf a report on what the group and its members — 84 at the time — were doing.

Recently, Elisa was kind enough to share the bulletin with Blogging Woolf, so we are sharing it with you here.  It is an attractive publication with original cover art by Lucrezia Gentile, and it is definitely worth a long look.

The society has a Facebook page, as well as a website, which society founders are working on making bilingual.

Elisa Bolchi and Sara Sullam, two members of the new Italian Virginia Woolf Society who attended last June’s Woolf conference in Reading, England. Elisa is the society’s president.

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Here’s what Virginia Woolf is doing in Italy

Posted in 27th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, Italian Virginia Woolf Society, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , on Wednesday 26 July 2017| 1 Comment »

Virginia Woolf readers and scholars from all over the world attended the Woolf conference in Reading, England, earlier this month — and two of them were from Italy, representing the new Italian Virginia Woolf Society.

I was happy to meet Elisa Bolchi, president of the new society, along with member Sara Sullam. And when I mentioned at the Saturday evening banquet that I would love to have one of the society’s lavender buttons, Elisa readily removed hers from her sweater and gave it to me. It is now one of my prized mementoes from the conference, particularly since I am of Italian heritage and will always be in love with Italia.

Here’s an update about the group provided by President Elisa Bolchi.

Elisa Bolchi and Sara Sullam, two members of the new Italian Virginia Woolf Society who attended this month’s Woolf conference in Reading, England. Elisa is the society’s president.

The Italian Virginia Woolf Society now has 84 members. We had our ‘vernissage’ event 13 June (Dalloway’s day!), in the garden of the International House of Women in Rome. The title was ‘Virginia Woolf: the sense of community’, and it was meant to introduce the aims of the Society. The speakers were the founding members: Nadia Fusini, Liliana Rampello, Iolanda Plescia and I.

We now have several events scheduled:

  • 5 October: we will be in Turin to present the Society. We are also planning four events in Turin related to this first presentation: three encounters dedicated to Woolf’s novels and one regarding her essays. We don’t have the dates set yet. We have been invited by the Readers’ Club of Turin.
  • 21 October: We’ll be in Bologna to speak of the “Current relevance of Woolf” in the beautiful conference room of the Salaborsa, the main public library in Bologna.
  • I’ll be also giving a PhD. lecture on the above topic in Perugia, at the end of October or the beginning of November (I don’t have the dates yet).
  • 24-26 November: 2nd edition of the Literary Festival “Il Faro in una stanza”, dedicated to Woolf.
  • For next Spring (probably March) we are planning our first conference, and the theme will be “Woolf and Community”.

Taking a group photo of Italian — and half-Italian — attendees at the 27th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf banquet was a must. It includes Sara Sullam, Patrizia Muscogiuri, Paula Maggio, and Elisa Bolchi.

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