Close Reading Seamus Heaney.
Join us for a brilliant short course with Mariah Whelan on the poems of Seamus Heaney. A rare chance to get to study some of his marvellous work in detail.
Saturdays, 20 June and 27 June 2026
14.00-16.00 British Summer Time.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/heaney
'And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter…'
Seamus Heaney, 'Postscript'.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/heaney
Doris Lessing: Women and Destiny. Live online course.
Thursdays, 3 September to 15 October 2026, 6.00 to 8.00 pm British Summer Time
Live online course: four lectures and seminars, Thursdays, fortnightly, starting 3 Sept. 2026, 6.00 to 8.00 pm.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/lessing-2025
Virginia Woolf and the Natural World: summer course 2026. The course will run twice: first, live online, 9-12 July. Then in person in Cambridge, 2-7 August.
In either form, it’s an amazing experience. Do join us.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/vw2026
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/summer-camb-...
This is excellent news.
Thank you! Deborah Parkin kindly gave us permission to use her amazing photographs. Her work is beautiful.
Odysseus is the consummate storyteller, delighting all with his adventures among nymphs, goddesses and monsters, depending on his audience. But what happens when the storyteller must leave the world of stories and return home? Live online course starts 6 May.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/odysseus
Virginia Woolf and the Natural World: summer course 2026. The course will run twice: first, live online, 9-12 July. Then in person in Cambridge, 2-7 August.
In either form, it’s an amazing experience. Do join us.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/vw2026
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/summer-camb-...
Now sold out.
What is it like to take a summer course live online? We find it an amazing, intensive experience.
Recent participants have written about their experiences:
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/friedma...
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/summer-...
People turn to Seamus Heaney’s words for everything from presidential inaugurations to reading for personal pleasure. Political, lyrical and always exquisitely crafted, his poems continue to delight. Two close reading sessions with Mariah Whelan, 20 & 27 June
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/heaney
Odysseus and Storytelling. And what about the women’s stories in The Odyssey? A new perspective in three lectures and seminars with Dr Jan Parker, live online.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/odysseus
To read Toni Morrison is to be introduced to her distinctive storytelling and to be challenged by her questioning of social, historical, and ethical concerns and our understanding of the world. Our live online course on 4 Morrison novels begins 21 May.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/morrison-26
Nearly sold out: live online course on Jane Austen’s Families with Dr Tom Zille, University of Cambridge.
Saturdays, fortnightly, 11 April to 23 May 2026, 18.00-20.00 British Summer Time.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/austen-2026
'I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison,
Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame.'
Terrance Hayes, from ‘American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassins’
Join us for a short course on Hayes' brilliant poems, 12 + 19 April.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/hayes
New blog post by Miles Leeson on the poetry of Iris Murdoch:
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/murdoch...
It is very exciting to see a different side of Murdoch’s writing and thinking in her poetry. Miles Leeson is Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Center and co-editor of the new Poems from an Attic: The Selected Poems of Iris Murdoch. He speaks 31 May.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/murdoch-poems
'You ask a hundred sonnets of me – you
That put pain not poetry upon my soul.'
Iris Murdoch was a restless writer, never standing still, mining her past for inspiration. In a unique lecture by Miles Leeson we will explore her undiscovered poetry. 31 May.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/murdoch-poems
Just a few places left on our new course on Jane Austen’s Families. Starts Saturday 11 April.
@akennedysmith.bsky.social writes about Virginia Woolf, Rupert Brooke, their naked moonlight swim & 'those daring Olivier sisters'. Also included: details about this summer's @litcamb.bsky.social course on 'Virginia Woolf & the Natural World'. tinyurl.com/bdz9d3f7
What is it like to take a summer course live online? We find it an amazing, intensive experience.
Recent participants have written about their experiences:
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/friedma...
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/summer-...
Please note several previous lectures in this Season have sold out, so do book promptly if you wish to attend.
On the 18th of April we will enter Mrs Dalloway's Rooms, with Angela Harris. Lady Bruton’s dining room, Clarissa’s attic bedroom, her drawing-room for parties, her bedroom at Bourton... What do these rooms mean; how do they shape the novel?
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/vw-season-6/...
What makes our live online summer course unique? Supervisions, based on the practice in Cambridge colleges in which small groups of 3 or 4 people work with a skilled supervisor. A rare opportunity to improve your close reading skills under expert guidance.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/vw2026
Doris Lessing: Women and Destiny. Live online course.
Thursdays, 3 September to 15 October 2026, 6.00 to 8.00 pm British Summer Time
Live online course: four lectures and seminars, Thursdays, fortnightly, starting 3 Sept. 2026, 6.00 to 8.00 pm.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/lessing-2025
Virginia Woolf Summer Course in Cambridge, 2-7 August 2026. Followed by an optional day trip to Monks House and Charleston. Do join us.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/summer-camb-...
Jane Austen’s Families: Live online course with Tom Zille, University of Cambridge.
We study:
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Persuasion (1818)
Saturdays, fortnightly, 11 April to 23 May 2026
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/austen-2026
Would anyone be interested in reviewing Claude McKay's 'Letters in Exile: Transnational Journeys of a Harlem Renaissance Writer' (2025, Yale UP) for our November 2026 issue? Give us a shout 😊
'Never will I wake those echoes, never will I ask for that hospitality again.'
In Woolf’s day, women were not permitted in college libraries. Today they hold first editions of her books. Join us in Cambridge to study 5 of her great works, August 2026.
www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/summer-camb-...
Line drawing of a tree in leaf
What does Milton's paradise smell like? Sophie Read follows the scent of a soothing substance "somewhere between medicine and magic" through the universe of 'Paradise Lost' in a new blog on the #DarknessVisible website darknessvisible.christs.cam.ac.uk/balmy-milton
@cam-english-fac.bsky.social