Agnes Owens at 100: Dame of darkly comic working-class stories
Explore the life and collections of major Scottish writer Agnes Owens in this talk by Laura Macdonald, Sorcha Dallas and Colin McIlroy, three researchers and curators of her work.
Described by Alasdair Gray as "the most unfairly neglected of all living Scottish authors", Owens began her writing career after attending a writer's class at a leisure centre in her middle-age just "to get out of the house".
Now MacDonald, Dallas and McIlroy will explore the collections left behind by Owens and discuss how these archives are being used to reappraise her legacy and secure her status as a major Scottish literary figure.
New editions of Agnes Owens' work will be available to purchase at the event.
About the speakers
Laura MacDonald is a collaborative doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde, University of Glasgow, and The Agnes Owens Archive, funded through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. Her thesis is provisionally titled 'Archiving Agnes Owens: Asserting the Marginal Voice'.
Sorcha Dallas is the Custodian of the Alasdair Gray Archive in Glasgow, which has recently launched The Agnes Owens Archive.
Dr Colin McIlroy is Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland, including its collection of Owens' literary papers.
