Glasgow Women’s Library is a haven for women writers and readers in Scotland. Scotland’s literary heritage has been passed from father to son, from Burns to Hogg and Stevenson, to Kelman and Gray. In this new age dominated by so much excellence in women’s writing, when women are being published internationally, to great acclaim and to great popularity, we want to celebrate a new canon.
In that spirit, the festival is named for the writer, Catherine Carswell, and her ground-breaking 1920 novel. Because in spite of women writers’ achievements, there are still doors to be opened. And so we will commemorate those literary mothers of the past as we celebrate the daughters of the present.
Open the Door is intended not to be just a new literary festival that puts women to the fore, but also the first of a new kind of format, where the more formal audience and speaker setting is replaced by a convivial, memorable shared experience.
Connected Pages
Open the Door 2023
Our theme for 2023 was Writers/Activists, and we were delighted to partner with Woman Zone in Cape Town, and the African Writers Trust in Kampala.
Open the Door 2021
Inspired by Glasgow’s long history of bold, creative women, our theme in 2021 was writers who are artists and artists who are writers, and we be celebrated how they weave these two practices together.
Open the Door 2020
For 2020, Open the Door had a special focus on environmental and ecofeminist ideas. Women have written extensively, both factually and creatively, about the world around them and the landscapes that we shape and that have shaped us. We used this festival as an opportunity to celebrate these words and highlight the importance of thinking widely about our environment and our changing world.
Open the Door 2019
The theme of 2019’s Open the Door festival was ‘celebrate, protest, and support’, featuring writers including Liz Lochhead, Chitra Ramaswamy, Kerry Hudson and Ali Smith.
Open the Door 2018
For 2018 we want to invite the world to Open the Door and took the festival online. We gathered content from contemporary writers and readers and designed a programme of discussion points and questions for you to ponder, around what it is to be a woman writer and reader.
Open the Door 2017
Open the Door 2017 was GWL’s first foray into the world of literary festivals. We set out to create a new literary festival that put women to the fore in a new kind of format, where the more formal audience and speaker setting is replaced by a memorable shared experience; a festival that revels in the diversity and range of Scotland’s women writers, inviting some of the best to open the door to some of the newest practitioners of their art.
