New WW1 Poetry Anthology - "Wij Werden Honderd Jaar Ouder" (En. We aged one hundred years)

"Wij Werden Honderd Jaar Ouder" (English: 'We aged one hundred years') - An anthology of WW1 poetry edited by Chris Spriet of Belgium, launched on 5th October 2013.  The Anthology features many poems of the First World War, together with illustrations by Chris, who has a very impressive CV.

 

On the following link you can read an interview on the book by Denzil Walton of the weekly Flanders Today:     http://issuu.com/contentconnections/docs/131016091137-c324c8adc66448c690be58ac918ddc6b/11?e=0

Chris Spriet (born in Belgium, 1950) is the grandson of a civilian victim of the Great War.  Edmond Spriet was killed on 28th May 1918 by a British bomb as he worked in a gang of Belgian workers on building a road in the village of Leke under orders from the German occupiers.  

Chris has a keen interest in War Poetry.  He taught seminars devoted to the War Poets, participating in a number of theatrical projects as well as Peace Tours to the Ypres Salient and the Somme. As a member of the Committee of the Friends of the In Flanders Fields Museum (VIFF) he  has a set literature feature in the magazine VIFFflash.

As a member of the War Poets Association, the Wilfred Owen Association, the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship and the Ivor Gurney Society, Chris has contributed articles to periodicals at home and abroad.

Being a personal friend of Margi Blunden, daughter of the war poet Edmund Blunden,  Chris assisted in the coordination of the Blunden-devoted part of the 2011 Somme War poetry tour: Fall in, Ghosts: on the contrasting wartime experiences of Edmund Blunden and Isaac Rosenberg.

At Chris's request, Margi wrote an unique memoir of her father Edmund. In it she describes the ins and outs of living with a sensitive war-traumatized father.

Chris also wrote several articles for the Edmund Blunden website www.edmundblunden.org and regularly review war-related books on Amazon.

Here is the list of female poets whose work is included in the book as well as in the book's survey of biographies:

 

Nancy CUNARD (US., Zeppelins)

Anna AKHMATOVA (Russ., In memoriam, July 1914)

Elinor JENKINS (The Last Evening)

Vera BRITTAIN (St Pancras Station, August 1915)

Jane CATULLE-MENDES (Fr., Qui? / Who?)

Helen MACKAY (Train)

Jessie POPE (War girls)

Edna ST VINCENT MILLAY (US, Conscientious Objector)

Elizabeth DARYUSH (US, Flanders Fields)

Theresa HOOLEY (War film)

Vera BRITTAIN (To my brother)

Eva DOBELL (Night Duty), one of my favourite poems

Andrea FRAHM (Germ., Zu Hause / At home)

Eleonora KALKOWSKA (Pol./Germ.), Man tat uns dieses an / Dit deden zij ons maan / They did that to us)

Jeanne PERDRIEL-VAISSIERE (Fr., Complainte des filles qui ne seront pas mariées, Klaagzang van de meisjes die niet getrouwd zullen zijn/ Complaint of the girls who will never be married)

Margaret POSTGATE COLE (Falling leaves)

Vera BRITTAIN (Perhaps)

Henriette SAURET (Fr., Elles / They)

The book is available to purchase from Amazon - I think you will agree that for anyone interested in women who wrote poetry during WW1 this book is definitely a 'must read'.