Today, the Virginia Woolf Society of Turkey presents a new talk in its Woolf Seminar series featuring Jeanne Dubino on “Virginia Woolf’s Life and Writing: The Embodiment of Animal Studies.”
The talk will begin at 7 p.m. (Turkey time) or 11 a.m. EST and is available via Zoom.
In it, Dubino will explore how Virginia Woolf’s work engages with animals, not merely as metaphors, but as companions, performers, and wild beings, while also addressing themes of experimentation and activism.
You can register for the talk via this link. Once registered, you will receive an email with the meeting link. Remember to check your spam folder if the email does not appear in your inbox.
Dubino is professor of English, Global Studies, and Animal Studies at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
Today is the 250th birthday of the celebrated British author Jane Austen, an author that Virginia Woolf held in great esteem, as evidenced by the fact that references to Austen are all over Woolf’s writing.
This is the tiny table where Jane Austen did her writing. Only the tabletop is original. It is housed at Chawton House in Hampshire, the one-time home of Jane’s brother Andrew.
Where Woolf mentions Austen
diaries — both early and late
letters
essays, including a chapter on Austen in The Common Reader: First Series (1925)
short story “A Society” (1915)
Roger Fry: A Biography (1940)
A Room of One’s Own (1929)
Three Guineas (1938)
The Voyage Out (1915)
Jacob’s Room (1922)
To the Lighthouse (1927).
the “Reminiscences” chapter of her autobiographical Moments of Being (1976)
A few quotes from Woolf about Austen
Interestingly enough, today I spotted these two timeless Austen classics on the book table at the bargain store Five Below in my city.
The wit of Jane Austen has for partner the perfection of her taste. Her fool is a fool, her snob is a snob, because he departs from the model of sanity and sense which she has in mind, and conveys to us unmistakably even while she makes us laugh. Never did any novelist make more use of an impeccable sense of human values. It is against the disc of an unerring heart, an unfailing good taste, an almost stern morality, that she shows up those deviations from kindness, truth, and sincerity which are among the most delightful things in English literature. – The Common Reader: First Series, pg. 141.
The real novelist can somehow convey both sorts of being. I think Jane Austen can – Moments of Being, pg. 70.
See more photos from Jane Austen’s House Museum, which uses 41 objects throughout the house she lived in from 1809-1817 to tell her story, as well as Charlton House, where her brother Edward lived. She visited there regularly.
Jane Austen’s House and Museum, which was her home from 1809-1817.
The rather small bed Jane Austen shared with her sister Charlotte.
Here are just a handful of news bits about Virginia Woolf scholars. I know there are more. So if you have one, please add it as a comment below this post. Or send it to me by clicking on the email link in the right sidebar.
Maggie Humm’s book The Bloomsbury Photographs (2024) received two honors this year. It was a finalist in the American Writing Award 2025 for Academic/Educational book, and it won the American Writing Award 2025 for photography.
Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil edited The Poems of Sylvia Plath, which is listed in the Faber Spring Catalogue and is now available for pre-order on Amazon UK. It is considered the definitive edition of Plath’s poetry.
Anne Fernald has a new book coming out in August. Her Own Voice: Eight Women Who Rewrote Life and Art tells the stories of eight radical women who responded to social oppression and helped create the modernist movement. In it, Fernald argues that the stories we read shape the lives we imagine for ourselves, and offers these stories as possible templates for living boldly and creatively.
Charleston in Sussex, England, home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant
Charleston is not a dance. Actually, it is. But it is much more. Every day it refers to Charleston in Sussex, England, also known as “Bloomsbury in the country.” And this weekend, the Weekend of Bloomsbury in Antwerp, Charleston is the theme for the second Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury Festival, which begins today and runs through Sunday.
Hosted by the Gordon Square Society, the festival includes prestigious events based at historic sites around Antwerp. They include:
a concert by Pierre Fontenelle & Max Charue
Virginia Nicholson on ‘My Childhood at Charleston’
Darren Clarke on ‘Is Craft Art?’
Gert Voorjans on ‘Sense of Place’
a Bloomsbury-themed banquet
and an exhibition of all the books hand-printed by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at the Hogarth Press.
James Kearns will give the International Virginia Woolf Society’s Annual Lecture on Thursday, Dec. 4, via Zoom.
His talk, “How a ‘Manifesto’ Unfolds: Microgenesis, ‘Modern Novels,’ and the Missing Authoress,” will be followed by a general discussion.
Topic: 2025 IVWS Annual Lecture by James Kearns: “How a ‘Manifesto’ Unfolds: Microgenesis, ‘Modern Novels,’ and the Missing Authoress” Date: Dec. 4 Time: 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Mountain Time (US and Canada), 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. EST, and 4-5:30 p.m. GMT
Members have received the Zoom link for the lecture via email. To join the society, visit their website.
