In this space, we pay homage to the women writers throughout the centuries, who have inspired throughout their lives and works, have shaped literature and given form to new visions of the world.
Each month of the year is dedicated to a woman writer born on the first day of that month, symbolically elected as a guide and inspiration for the following weeks.
Through a brief biography and reading suggestions chosen to delve deeper into the work of the writer of the month, the themes dear to her or the historical and cultural context in which she lived, we invite you to discover the female literary heritage and each month to listen to a different but equally powerful voice.
The month of August is dedicated to the English writer Rose Macaulay
1st August 1881 – 30th October 1958
On August 1st, Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, a writer of novels, poetry collections and essays, was born in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Rose studied Modern History at Somerville College, Oxford University, and after graduating, she wrote her first novel, Abbots Verney. During the First World War, she worked for the Women’s Land Army, a civilian organization created to employ women in agriculture to replace men called up to the military. This experience inspired her poetry collection On the Land 1916. She also worked in the British propaganda department and as a nurse to wounded soldiers. At the end of the war, she published the dystopian novel What Not, which addressed themes such as eugenics and misinformation; it was withdrawn, reedited and republished. Rose was also a feminist, pacifist, and author of columns for the newspapers The Spectator, The Listener and Time and Tide. In the 1950s, she published her last novel, The Towers of Trebizond, which recounts her personal experience of return to the Anglican church. The novel received the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Recommended readings of the month:
– The Towers of Trebizond: A novel by Rose Macaulay
– Personal Pleasures: Essays on Enjoying Life by Rose Macaulay
– What not: A prophetic comedy by Rose Macaulay
– Potterism: A tragi-farcical tract by Rose Macaulay