Philadelphia to host presentation of “Virginia Woolf and its Impact to the Literature” by Olivia Clarke

Olivia Clarke will present her new critical study, Virginia Woolf and its Impact to the Literature (approx. 336 pages), on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 6:30 p.m. at the Rittenhouse Literary Arts Center, Grand Hall in Philadelphia. The evening includes a reading, author talk, moderated Q&A, and signing; books will be available in hardcover and via ebook download cards. Admission is free with RSVP; the venue is ADA accessible with assisted-listening devices. Clarke’s book maps Woolf’s influence on form, voice, space, and contemporary afterlives, pairing close readings with classroom-friendly notes

PHILADELPHIA — October 21, 2025 — The Rittenhouse Literary Arts Center will host the public presentation of Virginia Woolf and its Impact to the Literature by literary scholar Olivia Clarke on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. The event—reading, author talk, audience Q&A, and signing—will be held in the Center’s Grand Hall, a restored Beaux-Arts venue overlooking Rittenhouse Square.

Clarke’s book is a reported and researched study of the novelist’s long shadow on contemporary writing. At 336 pages, it argues that Woolf’s experiments with time, perspective, and interior narrative anticipated debates that now shape memoir, autofiction, and digital storytelling. The volume organizes Woolf’s influence into four sections—Form, Voice, Space, and Afterlives—balancing close readings with broader cultural context. Fifteen illustrations, endnotes, and a curated bibliography aim the book at both general readers and classroom use.

The presentation will open with remarks from Eleanor Park, the Center’s executive director, who called the book “a clear bridge between the seminar room and the reading chair.” Clarke will read from a chapter that pairs Mrs Dalloway with a set of modern novels that adopt “single-day” compression and shifting consciousness, followed by a moderated discussion on how Woolf’s essays—particularly A Room of One’s Own—reshaped the expectations placed on women’s writing and criticism.

“Woolf showed that a sentence can be an ethical decision,” Clarke said in advance of the event. “Her language slows the world so that complexity can be heard. The book traces how that rigor travels—sometimes quietly—through late-20th-century fiction and into today’s narrative nonfiction.” The Q&A will take up questions of translation, the return of the novella, and whether the attention economy has changed how we read stream-of-consciousness prose.

The Grand Hall seats 220; admission is free with RSVP. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. An independent bookseller will offer the title in hardcover and via ebook download cards; a signing will follow the program. The venue is ADA accessible and equipped with assisted-listening devices; attendees may indicate needs in their RSVP. Light refreshments will be available in the mezzanine lounge.

While the book keeps its focus on Woolf’s craft, it also situates her within a wider network of writers who challenged conventional plot and perspective. A chapter on “Space” looks at rooms, streets, and shorelines as narrative engines, taking readers from To the Lighthouse to contemporary city novels. “Afterlives” follows Woolf’s critical reception and the periodic rediscoveries that return her to the center of syllabi and book-club lists. For readers seeking a quick primer on where to start with Woolf’s fiction, see best Virginia Woolf books.

The Rittenhouse Literary Arts Center—known for its small-press fair and seasonal author series—has positioned the December program as a forum for teachers, students, and general readers to compare notes on reading Woolf now. “We want the evening to feel like the best kind of seminar,” Park said, “one where interpretation is shared work and everyone leaves with a new page marked.”

Event Details
What: Presentation & Signing — Virginia Woolf and its Impact to the Literature by Olivia Clarke
When: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 | 6:30–7:45 p.m. (doors 6:00 p.m.)
Where: Rittenhouse Literary Arts Center, Grand Hall, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
Admission: Free with RSVP; limited seating; rush line as space allows
Accessibility: ADA accessible; assisted-listening devices on request

About the Book

Virginia Woolf and its Impact to the Literature synthesizes archival findings, fresh readings of the major novels, and a practical chapter for instructors. The book tracks Woolf’s influence across English-language traditions and in translation, noting how narrative proximity, free indirect discourse, and non-linear time have been adopted—and adapted—by later writers. The tone is analytic but plainspoken, with chapter summaries and a bibliography designed for further study.

About the Author

Olivia Clarke is a literary critic and researcher specializing in modernism, feminist narratology, and the ethics of form. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh and an M.A. from King’s College London. Clarke has conducted archival research at the British Library and the New York Public Library, presented at international conferences on Woolf and modernisms, and taught undergraduate seminars in narrative craft. Her essays have appeared in academic journals and general-interest outlets, where she is known for translating theory into clear, readable prose. This is her first trade-oriented critical study.

Media Contact
Press Office, Rittenhouse Literary Arts Center
[email protected] | (215) 555-0147

RSVP & Information
Please reserve seats in advance. Group bookings and accessibility requests may be directed to the Press Office during business hours.