Susan Sellers
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Susan Sellers is a British author, translator, editor and novelist. She was the first woman to be made a Professor in the field of English literature as well as creative writing at the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
, and is co-General Editor of the
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
edition of the writings of
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
. Sellers' first novel, '' Vanessa and Virginia'', is a fictionalised account of the life of
Vanessa Bell Vanessa Bell (née Stephen; 30 May 1879 – 7 April 1961) was an English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury Group and the sister of Virginia Woolf (née Stephen). Early life and education Vanessa Stephen was the eld ...
and of her complex relationship with her sister
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
. Sellers' second novel, ''Given the Choice'', is set in the contemporary art and music worlds. Her most recent novel ''Firebird'' is about the Russian dancer
Lydia Lopokova Lydia Lopokova, Baroness Keynes (born Lidia Vasilyevna Lopukhova, russian: Лидия Васильевна Лопухова; 21 October 1891 – 8 June 1981) was a Russian ballerina famous during the early 20th century. Lopokova trained at the ...
, her love affair and marriage to British economist
John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
, and her relationship with the Bloomsbury Group.


Life

Sellers gained her PhD from the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
in 1992, having previously received a Diplôme d'Etudes Approfondies from the
University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...
(
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
). While in Paris, Sellers became involved with leading French feminist writers, and has written on their work, for example, ''Language and Sexual Difference'' (Macmillan, 1995). She has worked closely with
Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and literary critic. She is known for her experimental writing style and great versatility as a writer and thinker, her work dealing with multiple genres: theater, literary a ...
, and has been influential in introducing her work to the English-speaking world, in books such as ''The Hélène Cixous Reader'' (Routledge, 1994), ''Hélène Cixous: Authorship, Autobiography and Love'' (Polity and Blackwell, 1996), ''Hélène Cixous: Live Theory'' (Continuum, 2004), and in translations such as ''Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing'' (Columbia University Press, 1993) and ''Coming to Writing and Other Essays'' (Harvard University Press, 1991). Sellers' work has been oriented towards women's writing. ''Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction'' (Palgrave, 2001) is an investigation into the ongoing resonance of myth and fairy tale for contemporary women's fiction, drawing on material by
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
,
Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
,
Bruno Bettelheim Bruno Bettelheim (August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was an Austrian-born psychologist, scholar, public intellectual and writer who spent most of his academic and clinical career in the United States. An early writer on autism, Bettelheim's wor ...
,
Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
,
Jack Zipes Jack David Zipes (born June 7, 1937) is a professor emeritus of German, comparative literature, and cultural studies, who has published and lectured on German literature, critical theory, German Jewish culture, children's literature, and folklore. ...
and
Marina Warner Dame Marina Sarah Warner, (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publicatio ...
, as well as French feminists Hélène Cixous,
Luce Irigaray Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...
and
Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has ...
, to read works by such writers as A. S. Byatt,
Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...
,
Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her series of novels ''The Vampire Chronicles''. B ...
,
Michèle Roberts Michèle Brigitte Roberts FRSL (born 20 May 1949) is a British writer, novelist and poet. She is the daughter of a French Catholic teacher mother (Monique Caulle) and English Protestant father (Reginald Roberts), and has dual UK–France nationa ...
,
Emma Tennant Emma Christina Tennant FRSL (20 October 1937 – 21 January 2017) was an English novelist and editor of Scottish extraction, known for a post-modern approach to her fiction, often imbued with fantasy or magic. Several of her novels give a femini ...
and
Fay Weldon Fay Weldon CBE, FRSL (born Franklin Birkinshaw; 22 September 1931 – 4 January 2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright. Over the course of her 55-year writing career, she published 31 novels, including ''Puffball'' (1980), '' The ...
. Sellers has also written on and edited a number of collections concerned with feminist theory and criticism, including ''A History of Feminist Literary Criticism'' (with Gill Plain, Cambridge University Press, 2007) and ''Feminist Criticism: Theory and Practice'' (Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991). Sellers' interest in the writings of
Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...
has led to her involvement in the Cambridge University Press edition of Woolf's writings which received a major
Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts an ...
Award in 2005 to support post-doctoral researchers. The edition aims for transparency in its mapping of the variants between the first British edition of Woolf's texts and those she subsequently oversaw – in particular the first American publication. It also aims to provide full annotation to Woolf's densely allusive prose. In addition to co-directing the project, Sellers also co-edited Virginia Woolf's ''
The Waves ''The Waves'' is a 1931 novel by English novelist Virginia Woolf. It is critically regarded as her most experimental work, consisting of ambiguous and cryptic soliloquies spoken mainly by six characters; Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny an ...
'' (with Michael Herbert) and co-wrote the 'Introduction' to ''
Jacob's Room ''Jacob's Room'' is the third novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 26 October 1922. The novel centres, in a very ambiguous way, around the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders and is presented almost entirely through the impressi ...
'' with Stuart N. Clarke. With Sue Roe, Sellers co-edited and contributed to ''The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Sellers edited the second edition of ''The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf'' in 2010. Sellers' novel, ''Vanessa and Virginia'', is in part a fictional biography of Virginia Woolf. It has been translated into 16 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, and was adapted for the stage by Elizabeth Wright and directed by Emma Gersch in 2009. The play premiered in Aix-en-Provence in 2010. Throughout, Sellers has been particularly interested in the creative process of writing. This is reflected in three collections published by
The Women's Press The Women's Press was a feminist publishing company established in London in 1977. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, the Women's Press was a highly visible presence, publishing feminist literature. Founding In 1977, Stephanie Dowrick cofou ...
– ''Delighting the Heart: A Notebook by Women Writers'' (1988), ''Taking Reality by Surprise'' (1991), and ''Instead of Full Stops'' (1996) – as well as in the translated selections from ''The Writing Notebooks of Hélène Cixous'' ( Continuum, 2004). For this latter project, Sellers was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2001–2002, which she held as a Visiting Fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
. Sellers now combines academic research with work as a novelist. In 2012 she was elected a senior member of
St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...
and in 2020 of
Robinson College, Cambridge Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of bo ...
.


Works

* ''Firebird: a Bloomsbury love story'' (novel), EER (2022) ISBN 9781913087807 * ''Given the Choice'' (novel), Cillian Press (2013) * ''Virginia Woolf's The Waves'', (ed. with Michael Herbert) Cambridge University Press (2010) * ''The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, revised second edition'', (ed.) Cambridge University Press (2010) * ''White Ink: Interviews on Sex, Text and Politics with Hélène Cixous'', (ed. and transl.) Acumen and Columbia (2008) * ''Vanessa and Virginia'' (novel), Two Ravens Press, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Mariner Books U.S. (2008) * ''A History of Feminist Literary Criticism'', (ed. with Gill Plain) Cambridge University Press (2007) *
Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and literary critic. She is known for her experimental writing style and great versatility as a writer and thinker, her work dealing with multiple genres: theater, literary a ...
, ''La Chambre de Vera'', (transl.) Black Dog Publishing (2006) * ''Live Theory'', (with Ian Blyth) Continuum (2004) * ''The Writing Notebooks of Hélène Cixous'', (ed. and transl.) Continuum (2004) * ''Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women's Fiction'', Palgrave (2001) * ''The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf'', (ed. with Sue Roe) Cambridge University Press (2000) * ''Hélène Cixous: Authorship, Autobiography and Love'', Polity and Blackwell (1996) * ''Instead of Full Stops'', (ed.) The Women's Press (1996) * ''Language and Sexual Difference'', Macmillan (1995) * ''The Hélène Cixous Reader'', (ed. and transl.) Routledge (1994) * ''The Semi-Transparent Envelope: Feminism and Fiction'', (with Nicole Ward Jouve and Sue Roe) Marion Boyars (1994) * Héléne Cixous, ''Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing'', (transl. with Sarah Cornell) Columbia University Press (1993) * ''Feminist Criticism: Theory and Practice'', (ed.) Harvester Wheatsheaf (1991) * ''Taking Reality by Surprise'', (ed.) The Women's Press (1991) * Héléne Cixous, ''Coming to Writing and Other Essays'', (transl. with Sarah Cornell, Deborah Jenson and Ann Liddle) Harvard University Press, 1991 * ''Delighting the Heart: A Notebook by Women Writers'', (ed.) The Women's Press (1988) * ''Writing Differences: Readings from the Seminar of Héléne Cixous'', (ed.) Open University Press and St Martin's Press (1988)


References


External links


Susan Sellers Website



Bio at University of St Andrews Website

Penguin Random House Germany Website

Gallimard Mercure de France Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sellers, Susan Living people 21st-century British novelists Academics of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of London British editors British women editors College of Sorbonne alumni Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge 21st-century British women writers 1963 births 21st-century British translators