Prof. Elizabeth Abel Talks Odd Affinities and Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary and Garden Arts (website) got there first, nonetheless I’m thrilled to share the news that Prof. Elizabeth Abel released Odd Affinities : Virginia Woolf’s Shadow Genealogies with the University of Chicago Press this year.

cover of odd affinities with a black and white image of Virginia Woolf sitting, looking wistfully at the camera.
Abel’s Odd Affinities (2024).

Prof. Abel (faculty page) teaches with the UC Berkeley English Department. They teach courses on Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group as well as broader overviews of 19th and 20th century English literatures. This fall, they are leading courses “Memoir and Memory” as well as on graduate readings and special study.

In Odd Affinities, Prof. Abel discusses Woolf’s influence beyond a female tradition, looking at echoes of Woolf work in four major writers from diverse cultural contexts: Nella Larsen, James Baldwin, Roland Barthes, and W. G. Sebald. Looking at those “odd affinities,” Abel looks at how “Woolf’s career and the transnational modernist genealogy was constituted by her elusive and shifting presence.”

You can access Abel’s book through the UC Library Search, where you can access it online and download the fulltext.


Booker Prize Longlist!

To my delight, the Booker Prize longlist has been announced! I’m rather looking forward to a couple long weekends reading through these.

For the list, I’ve gone ahead and included the Booker Prizes’ official links for title and authors as well then a UC Search or Berkeley Public Library link in the parenthesis. 

Keep in mind that you can request these books at the Oakland or San Francisco Public Libraries as well.

I hope we all enjoy!