This Intimate War Gallipoli/Canakkale 1915 Icli Disli Bir Savas: Gelibolu/Canakkale 1915

Robyn Rowland’s powerful poems record the experiences of soldiers, nurses and doctors, women munitions workers, wives, mothers, composers, painters and poets during the Gallipolli War,1915. It began with the Battle of Çanakkale and the defeat of the British navy. The land battle was hand-to-hand killing, the physical closeness of its soldiers unmasking the depersonalization of the propaganda of war. Importantly, the book finishes with a poem on women’s friendship 100 years after the war, and the healing nature of love.

Mehmet Ali Çelikel is Associate Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, Pamukkale University in Denizli, Turkey. He writes on post-colonial and postmodern fiction and translates Robyn Rowland’s poetry. Robyn Rowland is an Australian-Irish poet regularly visiting Turkey. She has written twelve books, nine of poetry.