RSL Announces Programme For Dalloway Day 2023

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL), the voice for the value of literature in the UK, has unveiled plans for Dalloway Day 2023 - an annual celebration of the work and legacy of Virginia Woolf which takes place each year on 'a Wednesday in mid-June'.

On Wednesday 14 June the RSL will celebrate their sixth annual Dalloway Day with a programme that will breathe new life into Woolf's works through adaptations, writing workshops, and new commissions from three emerging writers. This year, a particular focus is given to Woolf's notable novels Orlando and Mrs Dalloway. For further information and to register for tickets visit: https://rsliterature.org/rsl-event/dalloway-day-2023/

The Pulse of a Perfect Heart

The Royal Society of Literature, in partnership with Peninsula Press, has commissioned three writers to respond to the combined might, maps and meaning of two distinctively London-based novels: Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and Love, Leda by Mark Hyatt.

Authors Ashleigh Nugent, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Tice Cin have created responses to both books - their points of connections and divergence - whilst creating something new, further populating and complicating, not to mention enriching, London's literary landscape.

Mrs Dalloway and Love Leda take us on journeys around the capital. They employ a stream of consciousness narrative; are named for their protagonists; present us with class structures; and explore different kinds of love. Whereas Virginia Woolf is one of the most famous writers of the last century, Mark Hyatt's modest renown as a poet has faded in the years since his death in 1972. The manuscript for Love, Leda was only discovered in 2019 by Luke Roberts and Sam Ladkin, after they made contact with Mark's friend Lucy O'Shea - it was published by Peninsula Press soon after. Written around 1965, Love, Leda pre-dates the Sexual Offences Act of 1967. It is a portrait of a lost Soho, as well as an important document of queer, working-class life, from a writer long overlooked.

Margo Jefferson and Virginia Nicholson - Woolf's Diaries

On the publication of new, complete editions of the diaries of Virginia Woolf, Rathbones Folio and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Margo Jefferson discusses her long standing admiration for the author, how the diaries reveal a unique mind, and provide a rich insight into her life.

She is joined by author and RSL Fellow Virginia Nicholson, the great-niece of Virginia Woolf, who has also contributed to the new editions of the diaries.

This is a recording of an event at the British Library on 31 May, released exclusively for Dalloway Day.

Dalloway Day: Write & Shine Writing Workshop

Author Gemma Seltzer will lead a morning writing workshop inspired by Virginia Woolf. Further details to be announced.

Young People's Workshop with Helen Bowell: Learning from Orlando

A workshop looking at ideas of selfhood, gender and identity through Virginia Woolf's groundbreaking novels Orlando (which claims to be a biography) and Mrs Dalloway.

The protagonist in Orlando lives for centuries, changes gender halfway through the novel and is constantly remembering and remaking themselves - but in today's online and postmodern world, the self, gender and identity feel more significant than ever. Led by Helen Bowell, this workshop will explore how Woolf's work can help us to interpret our present moment(s).

Neil Bartlett and Sarah Ruhl: Working with Orlando

Playwrights Neil Bartlett and Sarah Ruhl come together in conversation to discuss their adaptations of Orlando.

Both versions were recently staged in London and received critical acclaim. In this exclusive conversation for the Royal Society of Literature, Bartlett and Ruhl will reflect on the process of adapting the novel, translating Woolf's language from page to stage, and why they set about it in the first place.

Zadie Smith In Conversation

Zadie Smith joins Professor Shahidha Bari for a conversation about the life and works of Virginia Woolf.

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