On Wednesday 4 October, the University of Glasgow welcomed participants from Scotland, England, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, India and Canada to an Edith Wharton workshop.

The event was part of the Transatlantic Literary Women Series, founded by Dr Laura Rattray (Reader in American Literature), which organises talks, workshops, discussions, symposia and reading groups focused on the lives and writings in all genres of transatlantic literary women. Events are free and open to all.

Some participants knew a lot about Edith Wharton and her work; others were coming to Wharton for the first time. Speakers for the day were Dr Ailsa Boyd (University of Glasgow), Katie Ahern (University College Cork), Anna Girling (Edinburgh University) and Laura Rattray (Glasgow).

Talks ranged from an introduction to Edith Wharton, to “Wharton, Taste and Design”, “Wharton, Race and Class”, “McWharton in the Scottish Archives” and “Wharton and the Theatre”.

A quiz, designed by University of Glasgow PhD candidate and TLW committee member Margarida Cadima, posed a series of questions about Wharton’s life, work and contemporaries, with clues along the way. Quiz winner, Sally Jones, now has a new set of books to add to the luggage for her return journey to Canada.

At the end of the workshop the Transatlantic Literary Women team announced the results of the Edith Wharton writing competition, which challenged everyone to imagine an alternative ending to any work by Wharton. The winners hail from Scotland, the United States and Portugal.

Read the winning entries and find out more about the series on the TLW website:

https://transatlanticladies.wordpress.com/

First published: 8 October 2017

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