by Gabi Reigh
First published 2023
This collection brings together feminist writers who lived alongside Virginia Woolf in the early twentieth century. The anthology pairs celebrated authors like Zelda Fitzgerald, Katherine Mansfield, Radclyffe Hall, and Edith Wharton with recently rediscovered voices from Bulgaria, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Palestine, Romania, Russia, Spain, and Ukraine. These women wrote about the struggles that defined their generation: workplace discrimination, world war, complex relationships, and emerging ideas about sexuality. The twenty-two pieces include both short fiction and poetry, offering perspectives from governesses navigating class boundaries, women finding independence through work, lovers separated by conflict, and artists questioning traditional roles. Writers like Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Akhmatova, and Gabriela Mistral appear alongside lesser-known figures such as Fani Popova-Mutafova and May Ziadeh. The collection reveals how women across different cultures faced similar challenges while developing distinct literary voices that captured the revolutionary changes of their time.
Genres: literary-fiction, anthologies, historical-fiction, 20th-century, feminism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, literary-fiction, social-commentary
Setting: Bulgaria, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Palestine, Romania, Russia, Spain, Ukraine
Period: Early-20th-Century
271 pages · Paperback · Aurora Metro Books