A brilliant anthology of modernist women’s writing united by common themes on independence, power and identity. A combination of lesser known authors amongst canonical writers of women’s fiction makes it a refreshing read.

There are many powerful and well-written stories in these collection but bringing them together and reading them side by side, one gains a glimpse into oppression of women that has been taking place for hundreds of years. Despite the palpable oppression, there is a spirit of resilience and strength that these stories show so while our heart goes out to the female protagonists, we also walk away from the book with a hope in the strength of the human spirit.

Virginia's Sisters | Selected and Introduced by Gabi Reigh | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

**Thanks to @netgalley and @aurora_metro for a Review e-copy in exchange for an honest review**

This is a brilliantly curated anthology of women's writings of the early 20th century, from the world over.
While it boasts of short reads and poems from the absolute stalwarts of women's fiction including Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Edith Wharton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Zelda Fitzgerald, et. all; it also has some equally brilliant pieces from lesser celebrated geniuses of the literary world like Fani Popova-Mutafova, Sorana Gurian, May Ziadeh and others.

Thematically, these are about women who are reflective, thoughtful, audacious, adventurous. Who dare to change themselves and challenge society and time. Who weave their own stories to find their place in the world.
They are gutsy yet fearful. They are triumphant with a sense of loss, they might not always be happy but never without hope.

With beautiful illustrations and thoughtful quotes working as chapter breaks, this collection, about the ever-evolving landscape of the woman experience, is for keeps.
And this should find it's rightful place in our libraries.

A commendable job by Gabi Reigh in bringing together and also translating such brilliant pieces of writing, across languages and timezones and offering us this treasure trove of literary masterpieces we most likely would have missed out on.

Thank You @gabireigh

The collection of short stories covers a myriad of topics ranging from love, work, discrimination of many kinds, sexism amongst others. The number of topics covered added a range that would excite the interest of many readers.

The mini biographies at the end were excellent reading in itself but as one reviewer said, it would be preferable to have it at the beginning of each story. I hadn’t read works by some of the writers, and this has sparked an interest in me to delve further.

A collection of women’s writing from early last century including short stories, poetry, quotes and extracts from novels. Some of the writers are well known (from Woolf, to Mansfield, Wharton and Perkins Gillman), and others are translated works from all around the world (including China). I really enjoyed the collection, there’s good variety and yes, there were a couple of stories that didn’t make much of an impression. My favourites : ‘The Little Governess’ by Katherine Mansfield, ‘Coming Home’ by Maria Messina about an awful marriage, and ‘Autre Temps’ by Edith Wharton about changing attitudes to divorce. ‘The Iceberg’ by Zelda Fitzgerald was also good but spoiled by the ending.

What a read! Virginia's Sisters was such an amazing read from start to finish. Through this collection of short stories and poetry, editor Gabi Reigh opened my eyes to a decade of women's writing that was so beautiful. I had heard of some of the writers but I was delightfully surprised by how much I loved the works by the writers I didn't know. The anthology was amazing and a powerful collection of literature for women by women. I will recommend it to everyone I know.

Thank you, NetGalley and Aurora Metro Books for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A series of excellent short stories written at the same time as Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield were writing in the UK. It was lovely to read Eastern European writers in translation who had otherwise disappeared from conversations and study. I have already shared this with colleagues and students and will be using the stories for KS4 and KS5 units in the future.
A copy of this book should be in every high school library in the country - especially those who teach modernist writers and consider that Woolf is the only woman writer of this time.
Brilliant and timely.

4/5! I didn't enjoy every single story, but overall the book was great. The editor did an amazing job introducing the content and compiling everything cohesively.

I've already read most works by the authors included, so I didn't feel there was anything specific to take away from this. However, for someone not saturated in feminist literature this is a great introduction to some of the greatest minds from the past century.

What a collection! The authors included in this epic Anthology are so varied and whilst some are extremely well known I was pleasantly surprised to find some I have yet to read. The Anthology offers a chance to immerse yourself in the works of feminists past with a diverse array of important women writers from Bulgaria, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Palestine, Romania, Russia, Spain and Ukraine. A powerful collection of short stories and poems by women for women. I will be recommending this book to everyone.

By assembling a rich array of poetry and prose by Virginia Woolf’s contemporaries from across the globe, Gabi Reigh honors the famed author’s desire that female writers be named and celebrated.

Virginia’s Sisters: An Anthology of Women’s Writing, Aurora Metro Books, 272 pages, $21.99

Editor Gabi Reigh’s introduction to Virginia’s Sisters: An Anthology of Women’s Writing starts off, predictably, with a quote from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” The female writers in Reigh’s anthology are all named, but the volume’s biographical endnotes reveal that many of them faced considerable, in some cases extreme, consequences — including imprisonment — for penning their words. By assembling a rich array of poetry and prose by Woolf’s contemporaries from across the globe, Reigh honors the famed author’s desire that female writers be named and celebrated. The result is a nuanced, inclusive conversation between female voices made all the more poignant by the fact that it never could have happened in Woolf’s lifetime.

Of course, by titling her anthology Virginia’s Sisters, Reigh strategically puts Woolf at its center, no doubt hoping a prominent name will lend gravitas to a lineup that includes lesser-known authors from a wide range of countries, such as China, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Chile, and Israel. Reigh addresses this tactic in her introduction: “How do you persuade publishers to print a translation of a writer whose work, although fresh, daring and beautiful, is largely unknown?” She combines pieces by authors familiar to Anglophone readers (Edith Wharton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman) with texts by unknowns. Reigh has also assembled a rich collection of (mostly female) translators; many of the pieces are translated into English for the first time here. This approach also resonates with Woolf’s dislike of provincialism. In an illuminating video about how the anthology was put together, translator Leilei Chen points out that Woolf, in her lifetime, engaged in conversations with some of the “rediscovered” authors in this anthology. For example, Woolf and Ling Shua, who exchanged letters for years “are remarkable as [they] dared to express female sensibilities at a time when most Chinese girls were still forced to have their feet bound.” Chen goes onto say that the realism of both Woolf and Shua “endows household objects with explosive meaning and makes [their] writing subversive.”

In addition, the selection of known and unknown voices in Virginia’s Sisters amplify its themes, as well as its intent to supply nuanced portraits of both women and men in the early twentieth century. Reigh opens with a story translated from the Bulgarian, Fani Popova-Mutafava’s “A Woman,” which, as suggested by the title, addresses what it means to be a woman in somewhat universal terms. “This is how a woman comes into the world,” writes Popova-Mutafava. “Greeted with disappointment, resignation and condescension.” In the stories that follow, we are given graphic examples of women moving through a male-dominated societies that inevitably greet them with hostility.

The similarities, as well as the striking differences, in these stories and poems allow for some beautiful pairings. Reigh’s modern sensibility shines through in the selection and ordering of pieces. She does more than rely on overarching themes — Reigh is alert to how little details can bond these eclectic works into a cohesive whole. Common motifs, including domestic descriptions of sewing and housekeeping, women traveling alone, and the personification of nature, are used to shape a narrative through-line. The reader is presented with a variety of women in a variety of life stages; some married, some divorced, some single, some young, some old, some gay, some straight and, of course, they are from all over the world. In Woolf’s “The Mark On The Wall” and Dunbar Nelson’s “I Sit and Sew” women appear in the home. In other pieces, including Katherine Mansfield’s “The Little Governess” and Talmon’s “First Steps,” women are shown traveling. Many of these pieces delve into the complications and power dynamics of heterosexual relationships; others, including Cialante’s “Natalia” and Shuhua’s “Once Upon A Time,” explore homosexuality in places where it was disdained and illegal.


Editor Gabi Reigh

The anthology also includes illustrations that effectively mirror, or sometimes complicate, the stories’ plots. These simple, but attractive, black and white prints add dramatic touches to the often sinister narrative themes. In “Villa Myositis,” for example, Gurian describes Li as “imbu[ing] the room with personality, bonhomie and a vaguely tropical scent.” Then, as she slowly removes her aesthetic choices from the room, the protagonist loses herself as well, ending up sickly and isolated. The visuals framing this story beautifully and subtly underline her decline.

Reigh scatters epigraphs throughout the volume from a number of canonized authors: Woolf, of course, but also Jean Rhys, Simone de Beauvoir, and Gertrude Stein. These likely are meant to offer insights into the stories they introduce. It is the editor’s attempt to facilitate conversations among the texts without the intrusion of a modern voice. Notably, most of the authors of the epigraphs do not have any of their work included in the anthology. On the one hand, Reigh has come up with an ingenious way to make more women heard. But, at the same time, the epigraphs don’t quite fit: they end up being a little out of place, shoehorned in on occasion. These out-of-context quotes sometimes distract from the anthology’s impact as a succession of powerful voices. Reigh assumes, perhaps a touch presumptuously, that readers will be familiar with female authors who were well known during Woolf’s time period. These female voices, brought in because of their “big” reps, detract from the celebration of lesser-known female authors. Virginia’s Sisters can be easily appreciated and understood without the use of celebrity cameos.

The stories and poems in Virginia’s Sisters are strong enough to stand on their own. This anthology tells a haunting tale of women undermined, manipulated, and used in cultures around the globe. But it also pays homage to the hard work, resilience, and creativity it took to create beauty out of a world of diminished possibilities.

<i>”I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”</i> (Virginia Woolf)

This opening quote sets the tone for this anthology of short stories and poetry written by women authors from around the world who might be considered ‘sisters’ to Virginia Woolf. Some were members of the infamous Bloomsbury Group and were champions of women’s rights and suffrage as well as campaigners/pioneers for tearing down taboos surrounding same sex relationships.
English language stalwarts including Katherine Mansfield, Zelda Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, and Woolf herself make an appearance. But it is the addition of so many more stories translated into English that make this such a noteworthy and refreshingly insightful collection. I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of Perkins Gillman, Maria Messina, Ling Shuhua, Radclyffe Hall and the poetry of Alice Dunbar-Nelson.

My thanks to Aurora Metro Books and NetGalley for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

The stories and poems included in this book center around themes of discrimination, relationships, feminism, and many other issues women in the early 20th century faced and that women are still facing today. Even though these entries were predominantly written around the early 1900s, the struggles represented still feel relatable and relevant.

Virginia's Sisters is an anthology of short stories, essays, and poetry written by female writers who were contemporaries of Virginia Woolf. Many of these entries are translated pieces from authors that I had never read from before. There were authors from Romania, China, Ukraine, and many other countries included in this book and that made it one of the most unique anthologies that I have ever read. Some of my favorite pieces in this book included, Once Upon a Time by Ling Shuhua, Villa Myosotis by Sorana Gurian, A Woman by Fani Popova-Mutafova, and Autres Temps by Edith Wharton.

Anthologies can be tricky to review because one story or poem may completely change your view of the whole book. One story that doesn't interest you or seems out of place can throw off the entire experience. Overall, I felt that the collection of works presented here flowed well and made sense as a group. There were some entries that I struggled with based on writing style or some other issue, but overall I liked the majority of the pieces selected.

This book is a collection of short stories and poems written by female writers in the early 1900’s. Some are translated to English from the native language. It’s a nice book because you can read one short story and come back later to a different story. I’ve not read many of these authors before so it was interesting to hear their stories. I also loved the drawings and quotes from famous women throughout history. It reminds me how far women have come in the last 100+ years and how much more can change in the next 100 years. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in early 1900’s stories about women and the struggles they faced.

A fascinating anthology of women's writing from the first half of the twentieth century, including stories translated into English for the first time. There's a good range from the familiar (Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Zelda Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Anna Akhmatova) to the likely unfamiliar (to a UK/US audience) including female voices from Ukraine, Sardinia, China, Chile, Egypt and elsewhere. And, unusually for an anthology, all of the stories, poems and extracts earn their place here - though I'd say the Wharton story isn't, perhaps, her strongest, and the extract from Charlotte Gilman Perkins' Herland doesn't stand well as a cut-out from that book.

With subjects that stretch from the interior and domestic to love, desire and war, this takes a broad view of 'female experience' and it's good to see that motherhood is not placed centrally as *the* archetypal event of a woman's life.

There are mini biographies of the authors and translators at the back - personally, I'd have preferred them ahead of each story for context - and a scattering of 'inspirational' quotations and line drawings throughout that weren't quite to my taste.

Nevertheless, it's fantastic to see such a variety of female authors brought together here, including some of whom I had never heard. My only regret is that after discovering women I'd like to read more of (Fausta Cialente, for example, grabbed me instantly), it seems they haven't been more widely translated into English.

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for a copy of this anthology to review.

Virginia's Sisters is a fantastic anthology which brings to light female voices from the early 1900s who have not been celebrated as much in the literary canon, either because they were overshadowed by male contemporaries or because their work was not translated into English at the time of publishing. While well known names like Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton and Katherine Mansfield figure in this collection of poetry and short stories, their work is illuminated and complemented by voices from Eastern Europe and Asia.

All of these stories sing with talent but also shed light upon the female experience in the early 2oth century. Every woman in these stories is tackling how they are defined by their relationships to men, motherhood and marriage. But these writers also weave in the intricacies of human existence too - these are not two-dimensional narratives focusing just on the 'plight' of womanhood. Within these tales we learn about the loves, hungers and secrets these women keep. Independence, success, transgressing boundaries and queer relationships are all celebrated in these stories.

Thus, rather than being an anthology dictated by a white male professor in a stuffy office, this anthology breathes with refreshing perspectives as it exists to ensure quieter voices from literature of the past are finally being heard.

This was such a great anthology, it showcased really well done stories from other authors. I loved that each writer was from a different country.