Shrewsbury Bookfest Presents A Study Day Reflecting on the Literature and Art of the First World War

In collaboration with the Wilfred Owen Association and The University Centre Shrewsbury, Bookfest brings together three eminent academics who will talk about the women poets and artists of the First World War and the lasting influence that Owen has had on the poets who came after him. Chaired by Dr Jane Potter of Oxford Brookes University and trustee of the Wilfred Owen Estate.

• Women Poets of the First World War:  Robyn Marsack was Director of the Scottish Poetry Library from 2000 to 2016. Born and brought up in New Zealand, she has degrees in English Literature from Victoria University and Oxford. Her first publication was an edition of Edmund Blunden’s Selected Poems for Carcanet Press (1982), and she is currently working on a revised edition. Her edition of Edmund Blunden’s selected war prose Fall In, Ghosts was published by Carcanet Press in 2014.
• Women Artists of the First World War:  Alexandra Walton is a specialist in British and Australian war art and printmaking of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is an art curator with Imperial War Museums (IWM), and has written a PhD thesis on the history of print collecting at the IWM and the Australian War Memorial (AWM). Previously, she held a role as Assistant Curator/Documentation Officer in the Art Section of the AWM, and in 2008 she was the Gordon Darling Graduate Intern in the Australian Prints and Drawings Department of the National Gallery of Australia.
• The Lasting Influence of Wilfred Owen: Adrian Barlow has worked in education, assessment and literature all his career. Formerly Director of Public and Professional Programmes at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, he is currently President of the English Association and publications include World and Time: Teaching Literature in Context and Extramural Literature and Lifelong Learning (Lutterworth). He has written and lectured extensively on the literature and memorialisation of the First World War.

Date:  31st October 2018

Venue:  University Centre Shrewsbury, Guildhall, Shrewsbury SY3 8HQ

Time:  10am – 4pm

Ages:  16+ 

Tickets:  £25 per person to include tea/coffee on arrival, lunch and afternoon tea with Trench Cake.  Click here to book.

In partnership with Shropshire Council Shrewsbury Bookfest has presented a series of events commemorating the First World War each November since 2014

These events have been designed for children, young people and families to commemorate and remember all those who fought in the First World War. In keeping with Bookfest’s ethos of enthusing children and young people with a love of reading, all the events in the programme have a strong literary connection.