The origin of High Modernism faults the trauma of World War I as responsible for the ennui of the Lost Generation. Writers experienced loss, as they lost loved ones who died, their mental and physical health, and economic security and hope for a stable future. For women writers of High Modernism, such as Gertrude Stein, Djuna Barnes, H.D., and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, cultural trauma was just as responsible for feelings of loss as postwar trauma. The chapter considers the condition of self-imposed exile and the physical and emotional proximity of these women writers in Paris that led to the formation of a public trauma culture, which can be traced to Ann Cvetkovich perspective that employs the practice of disaffection to resist the everyday experiences of systemic exploitation and oppression that women writers suffer because of their gender or sexual orientation. The chapter proposes Fitzgerald’s inclusion in the public trauma culture of High Modernist women writers, as in Save Me the Waltz (1932) she uses sensual language, hyperbolic metaphor, and narrative substitution, which she derived from engaging with the expatriate women artists of 1920s Paris. In their queer fusion of Surrealist and Modernist techniques, Fitzgerald and this cohort of High Modernist women writers expose the dissonance—and madness—of patriarchal institutions while simultaneously normalizing nonstandard identities and creating a safe space for marginalized persons to process trauma.