Virginia Woolf: Writing Life
Online Summer Course 2025
Virginia Woolf: Writing Life
Live Online Summer Course 2025
Thursday 10 July to Monday 14 July 2025
The summer course in 2025 will be offered twice - once live online, and again in person in Cambridge.
This page is for the online course.
Our 2025 online Virginia Woolf course will explore the theme of Virginia Woolf: Writing Life. How does one write a life - a fictional life; a real life? We will look at the ways in which Woolf writes real and imaginary lives across five of her most brilliant novels.
We will explore how Woolf writes the lives of her great fictional characters: Clarissa Dalloway, Septimus Smith, Mrs Ramsay, the six characters in The Waves. We will study how she uses, and challenges, the traditions of biography in Orlando (1928) and Flush (1933). We will think about Woolf’s own life as a writer, and what that meant. And we will do a reading of her only play, Freshwater, which takes a comical look at the lives of her Victorian forebears.
There will be a rich programme of lectures, supervisions (tutorials), talks, and discussions. Our teachers include leading Woolf scholars and experienced Cambridge supervisors. We will spend a week immersed in the great writings and ideas of Virginia Woolf.
The course is based on 5 books which we will study in close detail, one book per day. Each day, there is a lecture, a supervision (tutorial), plus a further talk, reading or group discussion.
The supervisions are based loosely on the practice in Cambridge colleges, in which small groups of 3 or 4 people work with a skilled supervisor. This is a rare opportunity to look closely at Woolf’s writings, learn more about her historical and cultural context, and to improve your close reading skills.
We will explore the theme of writing life in Woolf’s fiction, her reflections upon biography, her constructions of character, and we will think about her life as a writer.
Course dates: Thursday 10 July to Monday 14 July 2025
Provisional times
• Lectures - 10.00 to 11.00 am British Summer Time. We will make the lectures available to people in other time zones with recordings as needed.
• Supervisions (tutorials) - provisional times: 9.00-10 am, 11.30 am–12.30 pm and 3.00-4.00 pm; possibly also 6.00–7.00 pm British Summer Time. Times will be finalised when we see how many people enrol and in which time zones. We aim to make it possible for people in all time zones to come to the supervisions at a reasonable time of day. The supervisions are at the heart of the course, allowing you to work in a very small group, guided by a supervisor.
• Talks and reading: approx. 2.00-2.45 British Summer time.
• Group discussions (on 3 days), 5.00-6.00 British Summer Time
Lectures and talks will be recorded, so you can hear them again throughout the course. Lectures will also be pre-recorded, so that people in US time zones can hear them at a convenient time (probably the day before) ahead of the day’s supervisions. The supervisions are not recorded.
Time: Allow approximately 3.5 hours per day, plus some reading time. There will also be a chance to talk informally with other participants on Zoom.
Lectures
Thursday 10 July 2025. Trudi Tate, Life and Death in Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Friday 11 July 2025. Ellie Mitchell, To the Lighthouse (1927): Writing from Life, Writing to Life
Saturday 12 July 2025. Karina Jakubowicz on The Life of Orlando (1928)
Sunday 13 July 2025. Claire Davison on The Ripple of Life in The Waves (1931)
Monday 14 July 2025. Alison Hennegan, Writing Flush (1933)
Supervisions
After each lecture, you will have a supervision. This is a small tutorial group with 3 or 4 students working closely with a supervisor on the book of the day. This is one of the most rewarding parts of the course.
We offer supervisions live at different times of the day, to cater for all time zones.
Talks and Readings
• Claire Davison, Leslie Stephen: Life Writer, Life Force
• Ann Kennedy Smith, The Life and Memoir of Jane Harrison, Fellow of Newnham College
• Marielle O’Neill on Leonard Woolf: Reflections on a Political Life.
• Beth Daugherty, Woolf’s Essays: Biography and Writing Life (tbc)
• Group reading of Woolf’s only play, Freshwater, led by Ellie Mitchell
• Karina Jakubowicz, reading aloud from Woolf’s writing
… and more
For further information on the talks, click here.
Vita Sackville West in Orlando
Virginia Woolf’s writing desk at Monks House. Photo by Stephanie Taiber, 2019
Prices
£590 full price
£550 members of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
£550 CAMcard holders
£540 students on a low income
All prices include VAT at 20%.
Reading list
Set reading
• Mrs Dalloway (1925)
• To the Lighthouse (1927)
• Orlando (1928)
• The Waves (1931)
• Flush (1933)
For the novels, please get the current Oxford World Classics edition, if possible, so that we can all be on the same page in supervisions. But if that’s not possible, any good edition will be fine.
Optional further reading
Gillian Beer, Virginia Woolf: The Common Ground (1996)
Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf (biography, 1996)
Susan Sellers, ed., Cambridge Companion to VW (2010)
Michael Whitworth, Virginia Woolf (OUP, Authors in Context, 2005) available as ebook
Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens and Other Short Fiction, ed. Bryony Randall (2022)
Virginia Woolf, Diaries, 5 vols.
Virginia Woolf, essays on biography
Links
• National Portrait Gallery on Vanessa Bell
• Article on exhibition of Vanessa Bell’s art, Guardian, 2017
• Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
• Monk's House, National Trust
• Charleston, National Trust
• Paula Maggio, Blogging Woolf
• Notes on Leonard Woolf
Further suggestions of reading will be provided for those attending the course.
If possible, please buy your books from independent bookshops for our courses. Hive.co.uk online supports independent bookshops. We also like Toppings of Ely (local bookshop). Thank you.
This course will be repeated in person in Cambridge 20-25 July 2025. Further information here.
Terms and conditions
We can’t usually refund course fees if you can’t attend. We might be able to transfer your booking fee to another course. Please email us to discuss. If there is a waiting list and we can resell your place, then we can refund, but this is not very likely. We recommend that you take out insurance in case circumstances prevent you from attending. Thank you.
This is the page for the 2025 live online course. For the summer course in person in Cambridge, please click here.
Participants’ comments on the live online summer courses
It was an absolute joy. Really. Day after day. I have learned a lot these past days and I will continue reading Woolf again and again and again . . . although now with a much more critical eye.
The organization was impeccable, the lecturers were all super interesting and Ellie Mitchell was a very patient and most generous and inspiring supervisor!- Yasmine Geukens, Belgium, 2023
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Just to say many thanks indeed to you, and EVERYONE involved in providing such an interesting, stimulating and enjoyable week on Virginia Woolf. I have had many insights and have happy memories too.
- Sue Dingle, Scotland, 2023
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I have been wanting to do a Literature Cambridge Summer School for a long time. So when it came online I was really thrilled to be able to join and I was not disappointed. All the lectures were excellent . . . truly inspirational and memorable. I enjoyed the supervision sessions and the opportunity to discuss in a smaller group. I loved immersing myself in Woolf for a whole week and I felt I learnt so many new things even though I have been studying Woolf for twenty years. But I guess that is what Virginia Woolf does to you . . . you can’t stop learning about her!
- Irene, England, 2022
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I especially liked the supervision portion of the course. It was a great opportunity to share thoughts on the reading. Often, others in my group made points that I hadn't considered. Alison Hennegan is a wonderful supervisor; I feel fortunate to have been included in her supervision group. Her breadth of knowledge is astonishing.
I also loved the talks on the houses in which Woolf lived. They were all superb.
Online courses are wonderful for those of us who live very far away and may not be able to make the journey to the UK. Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful week that I will always treasure!
- Mitchell Alcrim, US, 2022
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The quality of the lectures, seminars, and additional talks was excellent. I feel very privileged to be able to attend these sessions when I live so far away. The organization of the course and the access to additional material were exceptional.
Trudi, I would like to thank you and your team for the most wonderful experience.
- Jude Alford, Australia, 2022
Woolf and Childhood Online Summer Course 2024
You can read further accounts of online summer courses on our Blog page:
Diana Grosser from Munich on Woolf’s Houses
Gloria Friedman from Chicago on A Week in Woolf’s Houses.
Ellie Brady from Salt Lake City on Woolf’s Women Online.
Jude Alford from Melbourne on Woolf’s Women Online
Anna Selvey from Cornwall on Woolf and Childhood Online