Monthly Author Discussion - January - Virginia Woolf

January’s author in our postcard desk calendar is the great Virginia Woolf. Here’s some facts and quotes to celebrate!  

• Virginia was born in 1882 under the birth name 'Adeline Virginia Stephen'. She grew up in a large and wealthy family in Kensington, London.

• Best known for her novels, especially A Room of One's Own (1929), Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), she also wrote pioneering essays on artistic theory, literary history, women's writing, and the politics of power. 

• Her involvement in the Bloomsbury Set brought her attention. It was a group of artists and intellectuals who lived and worked in Bloomsbury, central London. They shared ideas, supported each other’s creative activities and formed close friendships. This was where she met her husband Leonard Woolf.

• The Bloomsbury Set encouraged each-other to experiment with different writing techniques. Virginia Woolf was one of the most distinctive writers of English Literature using the stream of consciousness technique masterfully. The stream of consciousness technique is one of the most challenging narrative techniques in writing. To find out more about this technique, we recommend watching the video 'What is Stream of Consciousness?' by Oregon State University school of Writing, Literature and Film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaSFwO3O2SI

For more about Virginia Woolf, we highly recommend the video 'Why should you read Virginia Woolf?' by the Education department of Ted Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcMLkce_BLg

Let us know your thoughts and experiences of reading Virginia Woolf. What's your favourite book by Woolf? Have you ever tried writing your stream of consciousness? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.