Executive Summary

The launch of this book is the first tangible result of the Perdita Project, a project which ran at Warwick---the final international conference was 2005-to find early modern women's poetry, which was not on the whole printed. This is the first edition of a whole manuscript, a manuscript found by a friend of mine in 1996, and the publishers are going to print another manuscript, Elizabeth lsham's memoir, in an edition which I am currently producing. Hester Pulter is the best female poet that we found and we want her to become frequently taught in early modern courses alongside Milton, her near contemporary, as she is now taught at Warwick. All students will be invited but especially those who have studied her. My MA class who study men's writing alongside women's in the course 'Shakespeare and his Sister' will also be invited.

The launch will involve everyone who has heard of her-my supervisor who is now a professor at Princeton has said he is coming and international academics who have published on her are speaking. Also speaking are two students who learned her poetry last year at Warwick , and myself on the experience of teaching unknown early modern women's writing. Two of my PhD students are organising the launch.

The intended legacy is that students and teachers from all over the world learn more about teaching and learning early modern women's writing. In particular we want, more people to get to know about Hester Pulter and buy her book. We hope that students who know about her will be excited to be involved in a landmark event in early modern writing. We need support to make it a really good event-we have a good venue-- the PG hub in Senate House, and the doctoral students who are helping organise it are running a blog. There is going to be a competition for students, for which we are asking for the money to give a prize, for the best original idea for teaching 17th century women writers by a Warwick student. This competition will be hosted by the Hester Pulter blog. This blog is designed as a forum for ideas on teaching and learning early modern women's writing. This resource could help both teachers and students and encourage a dialogue between the two.