The Famine Diaspora and Irish American Women's Writing

The Famine Diaspora and Irish-American Women’s Writing considers the works of eleven North-American female authors who wrote for or descended from the Irish Famine generation: Anna Dorsey, Christine Faber, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Mother Jones, Kate Kennedy, Margaret Dixon McDougall, Mary Meaney, Alice Nolan, Fanny Parnell, Mary Anne Sadlier, and Elizabeth Hely Walshe. This collection examines the ways the writings of these women contributed significantly to the construction of Irish North-American identities, and played a crucial role in the dissemination of Famine memories transgenerationally as well as transnationally. The included annotated excerpts from these women writers’ works and the accompanying essays by prominent international scholars offer insights on the sociopolitical position of the Irish in North America, their connections with the homeland, women’s activities in transnational (often Catholic) publishing networks and women writers’ mediation of Ireland’scultural heritage. Furthermore, the volume illustrates the generic variety of Irish-American women’s writing of the Famine generation, which comprises political treatises, novels, short stories and poetry, and bears witness to these female authors’ profound engagement with political and social issues, such as the conditions of the poor and woman’s vote.  
Marguérite Corporaal is Full Professor of Irish Literature in Transnational Contexts at Radboud University, the Netherlands. She was PI of Relocated Remembrance: The Great Famine in Irish (Diaspora) Fiction, 1847–1921), is a NWO-VICI grant recipient for her project Redefining the Region (2019-24), and PI of Heritages of Hunger, a Dutch research council-funded NWO-NWA project (2019-24). She is the author of Relocated Memories of the Great Famine in Irish and Diaspora Fiction, 1847–70 (2017).   

Dr. Jason King is Academic Coordinator of the Irish Heritage Trust and National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park, and a member of the Government of Ireland National Famine Commemoration Committee. His recent publications with Christine Kinealy and Gerard Moran include More Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger  Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger (2022, 2021) and Irish Famine Migration Narratives: Eyewitness Testimonies, vol II, The History of the Irish Famine (2019). 

Peter D. O’Neill is Associate Professor in Comparative Literature and Intercultural Studies at the University of Georgia, USA. With David Lloyd, he co-edited an essay collection, The Black and Green Atlantic: Crosscurrents of the African and Irish Diasporas, (Palgrave Macmillan; 2009). His award-winning book, Famine Irish and the American Racial State, was published inpaperback in 2019.