UofG’s Transatlantic Literary Women Series welcomed speakers and visitors from the UK, Europe, and the United States for “Transatlantic Women in the Trenches” on 22 April, writes Dr Laura Rattray, Reader in American Literature.

On a sunny afternoon, visitors gathered at the recreated trenches in Pollok Park for talks and workshops on the contribution of transatlantic women during the First World War, marking the centenary of official American involvement in the hostilities.

In a collaboration with the project Digging In, speakers included Alice Kelly from the University of Oxford, Hannah Tweed and Laura Rattray of the University of Glasgow, and Anna Girling from the University of Edinburgh. Olivia LeLong of Digging In gave tours of the trenches, while Glasgow alumnae Marine Furet, Saskia McCracken and Mags Keohane ran workshops and gave readings in the trenches of writings by transatlantic literary women. 

There were talks on frontline American writers, nurses and activists Ellen La Motte and Mary Borden, on Edith Wharton, the American writer awarded the Legion d’Honneur by the French Government for her war work, on American propaganda posters using images of women to sell the war to a reluctant American public, and the poetry of Nancy Cunard.

Funded by the British Association for American Studies and the US Embassy, the Transatlantic Literary Women Series runs workshops, talks, creative writing showcases, a symposium and book club, exploring the lives and writings of transatlantic women from the nineteenth century to the present day. Find out more about the series here at: Transatlantic Literary Women

 Transatlantic Women in the Trenches speakers

First published: 2 May 2017

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