Dalloway Day 2022
15/06/2022
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Wednesday 15 June
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Join us online, wherever you are, for our fifth annual celebration of Virginia Woolf’s work and legacy. Dalloway Day takes place on ‘a Wednesday in mid-June’, just like the novel itself.
This year, we’re partnering with BBC Radio 3, the British Library, Lit Hub, The London Library and Write & Shine to bring you a programme of workshops, conversations and a film screening, reimagining and examining Woolf’s writing today.
A Room of One’s Own Screening
Available from 14-17 June
On Dalloway Day Eve, prepare for the festivities ahead by watching The London Library’s tribute to another of Virginia Woolf’s other iconic works, A Room of One’s Own.
Filmed in the atmospheric spaces of The London Library, where Woolf, a long-standing member, would once have browsed the book stacks, Charlotte Westenra directs actors Sophie Melville, Nina Sosanya and Colin Tierney in Linda Marshall-Griffiths’ stunning dramatic adaptation of this ground-breaking work.
Specially discounted for Dalloway Day, the film will be available to watch online anytime between 6pm on 14 June and 12 midday on 17 June.
Tickets: £4 for RSL Fellows, Members and Digital Events Passholders (public tickets £6/£8) – book here.
In partnership with The London Library.
Write & Shine: Finding your voice 
Wednesday 15 June, 7.30-9am, Zoom
Start your day with a burst of creativity! Virginia Woolf felt she found her voice when she wrote Jacob’s Room at the age of 40. A hundred years after that evocative novel was first published, join Write & Shine for a morning workshop on ‘finding your voice’.
Alongside author Gemma Seltzer, we’ll explore Woolf’s distinctive writing style and consider how we can connect and listen to our own voices on the page.
Limited free tickets are reserved for RSL Members – book here.
Public tickets £22 – book here.
In partnership with Write & Shine.
Young People’s Workshop: Class, capitalism and social structure in Mrs Dalloway
Wednesday 15 June, 9am
For Dalloway Day 2022, Kabe Wilson will be presenting a workshop exploring themes of class and social rank in Mrs Dalloway, with particular focus on Clarissa Dalloway’s party.
Kabe will encourage students to look at the text and its characters using a method akin to demographic data analysis and give students a framework for discussing parties in literature, raising questions about representations of class and other forms of social segregation.
This workshop is FREE for everyone, but most suitable for 16-to-18-year-old students. To share the workshop with students, register your interest now to receive a link direct to your mailbox.
Vital Discussions: On Demand – The Aesthetic Life
Wednesday 15 June, 12pm
Woolf wrote about material culture in the shadows of conflict, destruction and colonialism, presenting high-society in a London struggling to put itself back together again, but is Mrs Dalloway really just a novel about parties and pretty things? And what does the aesthetic life mean to us today?
Join us for this free, transatlantic conversation between two novelists whose works explore the power of aesthetics in the 21st Century, Yomi Adegoke and Elif Batuman.
For a FREE watch link on the day – register here.
Part of our Vital Discussions: On Demand series, this event is in partnership with Lit Hub.
Dalloway Day Revisited
In 2018, Virginia Woolf’s biographer Hermione Lee spoke to novelist Alan Hollinghurst about Woolf’s legacy and impact, especially on his novel The Sparsholt Affair. Next, we had Sarah Churchwell and Elaine Showalter discussing the significance of Mrs Dalloway and its ongoing influence on literary culture.
In partnership with the British Library, listen again here.
In 2021, Merve Emre and Deborah Levy explored what Virginia Woolf means to them and the effects of her work on their own writing.
‘Every time I read this book, it becomes a new book, it’s renewed in some way.’
Deborah Levy
Part of our Vital Discussions: On Demand series, this event is in partnership with Lit Hub. Watch it again here.
Vital Discussions: On Demand – Virginia’s Party
Wednesday 15 June, 7pm
Mrs Dalloway’s party is one of literature’s best known social occasions, but what if Virginia Woolf herself had been the hostess? Who would have been on the guestlist? What would they have talked about?
Join this party-planning panel discussion between Merve Emre, Elaine Showalter, Kabe Wilson and chair Irenosen Okojie as they tell us who they think would have made the cut, and why. The event will start with a poetry performance from Kabe, interrogating class and capitalism in Mrs Dalloway.
For a FREE watch link on the day – register here.
Part of our Vital Discussions On Demand series, this event is presented in partnership with the British Library and BBC Radio 3.
Why not buy an RSL Digital Events Pass and attend all events for free?
