Emphasizing manuscript writings in English and their social, political, and religious contexts, the contributors to this collection challenge commonly held notions about women's writing in the early modern period, and bring to light many women whose work has not been considered before.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction; 'Desiring women writing': female voices and courtly 'balets' in some early Tudor manuscript albums, Elizabeth Heale; Katherine Parr, Princess Elizabeth and the crucified Christ, Jonathan Gibson; Mildred Cecil, Lady Burleigh: poetry, politics and protestantism, Jane Stevenson; Reading friends: women's participation in 'masculine' literary culture, Victoria E. Burke; Caitlín Dubh's Keens: literary negotiations in early modern Ireland, Marie-Louise Coolahan; Lady Anne Southwell's indictment of Adam, Erica Longfellow; Reading bells and loose papers: reading and writing practices of the English Benedictine nuns of Cambrai and Paris, Heather Wolfe; The notebooks of Rachael Fane: education for authorship?, Caroline Bowden; 'And Trophes of his praises make': providence and poetry in Katherine Austen's Book M, 1664-1668, Sarah Ross; The books, manuscripts and literary patronage of Mrs Anne Sadleir (1585-1670), Arnold Hunt; Perfecting practice? Women, manuscript recipes and knowledge in early modern England, Sara Pennell; 'Often to my Self I make my mone': early modern women's poetry from the Feilding Family, Alison Shell; Index.