Introduction

The First World War was a transformative experience, which destabilized gender roles and enabled new understandings of space. In her revealing examination of The Short Story and the First World War, Ann-Marie Einhaus argues that, although “short fiction rarely features in the war’s literary memory”, stories in out-of-print anthologies and back numbers of magazines “can contribute significantly to completing our image of the First World War beyond the typical Western Front narrative”. The event included a creative workshop led by the award-winning historical novelist Livi Michael, which explored the concept of neo-wartime writing—the construction of contemporary fiction inspired by archival material, including women’s wartime letters, journals and diaries. Melissa Edmundson figures the woman, like the ghost, as a liminal being during war, “perpetually occupying an in-between space”, removed from the front lines of battle yet experiencing the cultural trauma brought about by the conflict.