By Nava Atlas | On January 23, 2020 | Updated February 11, 2023 | Comments (0)
Vera Brittain (December 29, 1893– March 29, 1970) was a British memoirist, poet, essayist, and novelist whose work and life were forever marked by the losses she endured as a result of World War I. She’s best remembered for her classic memoir, Testament of Youth (1933).
As a young wartime nurse, she tended to wounded soldiers in several countries. Her brother and her fiancé were killed during the war. Brittain never fully recovered from the tragic loss, and the horrors of the war are poignantly depicted in her writings.
The suffering she witnessed inspired her to become a pacifist after the war, and she was an active, dedicated member of the peace movement for the rest of her life.
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By Marcie McCauley | On January 17, 2020 | Updated February 7, 2026 | Comments (2)
Elizabeth Taylor (July 3, 1912 – November 19, 1975) was a British novelist and author of short stories who is generally acknowledged to be underrated — a brilliant writer who deserves to be more widely read. She is not to be confused with the iconic actress with the same name.
Writers as distinct as Antonia Fraser, Barbara Pym, and Kingsley Amis admired her works, which are filled with impassioned as well as lonely characters. Read More→
By Skyler Gomez | On January 7, 2020 | Updated November 21, 2024 | Comments (2)
Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (September 28, 1871 – August 15, 1936), more commonly known as Grazia Deledda, was an Italian writer.
She is remembered for being the first Italian woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature (1926) and just the second woman to receive this award (Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf was the first, in 1909).
She was praised “for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general.”
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By Johanna Shaw | On December 21, 2019 | Updated March 8, 2023 | Comments (0)
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was a noted American poet. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Bishop won numerous awards during the course of her career, including the Pulitzer Prize.
Her reputation as a significant poet has only grown since her death. Her most iconic poems include “The Fish,” “One Art,” “A Miracle for Breakfast,” and “Sestina.” (photo above right courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Bishop wasn’t a particularly prolific poet, preferring to spend long periods of time revising her work; she wrote just over one hundred poems.
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By Elodie Barnes | On November 17, 2019 | Updated September 29, 2025 | Comments (0)
Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American-born poet, novelist, translator, and essayist who wrote under the pen name H.D.
She was profoundly influenced by the effects of World War I, and the subsequent trends of modernism, psychoanalysis, and feminism.
Her work is often framed within the context of other important modernist writers such as T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, and William Carlos Williams. Today, she’s best remembered for her innovation and experimental approach to poetry. Read More→
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