Bristol BookFest makes its 2026 selection
For its 6th year, BookFest organizers have selected Virginia Woolf's ‘Mrs. Dalloway’
(L-r) Steve Aveson, chair of The Friends of Rogers Free Library; August Thompson, Bristol BookFest steering committee member and RFL Teen and Adult Services Librarian; Steve Calvert, co-Chair of Bristol BookFest steering committee; and Doug Popovich, chair of Arts in Common and a founding member of BookFest announcing the two suggested editions of Bristol BookFest's 2026 novel, Mrs. Dalloway.
By Christy Nadalin
Virginia Woolf published arguably her best novel, Mrs. Dalloway, 100 years ago and made news. Bristol BookFest also has news. It recently announced that Mrs. Dalloway will be the featured book for its sixth annual BookFest weekend program April 10 and 11, 2026.
“The selection of Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway reinforces the breadth and opportunities a single book of literary significance can bring to community discussions across the humanities,” said Renee Soto, BookFest co-chair and Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Roger Williams University. “It is one of the great works in 20th century literature." "It deals with so many considerations that having experts come in to discuss the book with us will be very rewarding for everyone,” BookFest co-chair Steve Calvert said.
As with the last couple of BookFests, there will be a string of related events, discussions, and explorations, spinning off from the book, starting in January and running for three months up to the weekend itself. Plans are underway for Calvert to hold once-a-week discussion groups on the book and on Virginia Woolf. Last year, Calvert led a month of weekly discussions on “Fahrenheit 451” with attendance averaging around 45 persons. That number was up from 30 the year before, which itself was up from 15 the previous year.
The committee’s next steps will be to sign up experts to come and talk at the BookFest weekend in April and work with the Rogers Free Library and other groups developing the programs and activities January through March. More information will become available on the BookFest website (www.bristolbookfest.com).
“I’m super excited about the choice of this amazing book and what it offers to readers in Bristol and beyond,” said Doug Popovich, a member of the founding BookFest committee and currently chair of Arts in Common. “The novel follows a single day in a woman’s life — first light to dark of night — and the reader gets to dive directly into how inner thoughts, memories, and perceptions subjectively create experience and reality. A wondrous book that allows big questions about humanity, our existence, and the choices we make to be reflected.”
Everyone is urged to start reading Mrs. Dalloway now in order to participate in the library discussions in January and February. There are many editions; the BookFest committee and the library recommend two: the Mariner Edition also known as "The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition” (197 pages) or the Norton Critical Edition of the novel that includes 200 pages of commentary. The BookFest committee has donated multiple copies of each edition to the library. Either edition can be bought at Ink Fish Books in Warren (10% off if BookFest is mentioned).
