The September 21, 2025 edition of The Sunday Times published an article: The story behind Virginia Woolf’s lost book: ‘It was magical.’
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PBS News Hour: Collection of Virginia Woolf’s lost stories published nearly 80 years after her death
Malcolm Brabant of PBS News Hour reports from Wiltshire, England on the literary discovery that has produced The Life of Violet, and new collection of stories by Virginia Woolf brought to light by Urmila Seshagiri, the book’s editor. Seshagiri discusses why this work is important in broadening our understanding of Woolf’s manifold literary abilities.
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The Washington Post Reviews The Life of Violet
“The author’s early fiction, written in tribute to her friend Mary Violet Dickenson, shows her in a startling new light,” writes Post reporter Sophia Nguyen.
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Seshagiri Interviewed by BBC NewsHour
Urmila Seshagiri was interviewed by BBC NewsHour about the newly released The Life of Violet for the Monday, September 22, 2025 edition. Her portion of the interview is at minute 17:52.
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The Guardian Covers The Life of Violet
Released in the Saturday 27th edition, Ella Creamer of The Guardian reports “a chance discovery at a country house revealed the three funny – sometimes surreal – interlinked tales, written almost a decade before Woolf’s first book was published.”
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Big Orange Ears Open Wide
The University of Tennessee’s College of Arts and Sciences reports on the “connections of art, literature, and music [that] come alive for UT class through Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival.”
Laugh out loud funny?
The Times Literary Supplement explores the “fantastical and surreal” in Virginia Woolf’s The Life of Violet.
College of Arts and Sciences Reports on Odysseys
Since 2024, the Odysseys program created by English Professor Urmila Seshagiri, Distinguished Professor in Humanities, has invited students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences to see themselves through the story of a young man who leaves his home in India to study and work abroad.
Dr. Karina Jakubowicz of The Virginia Woolf Podcast speaks with Urmila Seshagiri about “The Life of Violet”
The Virginia Woolf Podcast is made in association with Literature Cambridge, an independent educational organisation that provides university-style lectures on a wide range of literary subjects. Head to literaturecambridge.co.uk for more info.
New Books Network podcast features Urmila Seshagiri
Urmila Seshagiri joins New Books in Literary Studies podcast host Morteza Hajizadeh to discuss The Life of Violet and its stories that upend the marriage plot, reject the Victorian belief that women must choose between virtue and ambition, and celebrate women’s friendships and laughter.
UT Professor Shines Light on Virginia Woolf
The University of Tennessee College of Arts and Sciences reports “professor Urmila Seshagiri’s scholarship provides context for Virginia Woolf’s first fully realized work of fiction in The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories.”
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Interviews Seshagiri for The Radio National Hour
“There’s a definitely Woolfian quality to these stories but also the slapstick, comedic nature of them is quite refreshing and perhaps quite unlike what we associate with her later works.”
The Life of Violet in Elle Italia
Elle Italia reports on Virginia Woolf’s The Life of Violet as “un primo esperimento letterario formato da tre storie comiche tra loro interconnesse” (trans., ‘a first literary experiment consisting of three interconnected comic stories’).
UT students explore Big Ears Festival’s range of music and cultural impact in upper-level English course
Local news station WBIR reports on the ENGL 475 course designed by Urmila Seshagiri.
Shocked there’s enough for a college course on Big Ears Festival? You have lots to learn!
Knoxville News Sentinel weighs in on the transformative experience of the English course on music taught by Urmila Seshagiri.
Big Ears Festival Opens Students’ Eyes
College of Arts and Sciences reports on the evolution of the Big Ears course designed and taught by Urmila Seshagiri.
NYPL Researcher Spotlight: Urmila Seshagiri
This profile is part of a series of interviews chronicling the experiences of researchers who use The New York Public Library’s collections for the development of their work.
‘Mississippi Masala’ was released 30 years ago. Here’s how it still resonates with audiences today
Urmila Seshagiri is interviewed for this CNN article exploring the origins and significance of the 1991 film.