Liz Herbert McAvoy is Lecturer in Gender in English Studies at the University of Wales Swansea. She has published widely on medieval women’s writing, the medieval mystical experience and anchoritism, including a monograph on Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. She is currently writing a book on constructions of gender in anchoritic guidance texts.

Mari Hughes-Edwards is Lecturer in English at the University of Salford. She has recently been awarded a Ph.D. on contemplative models in high and late medieval anchoritic guidance texts which she is currently revising for publication. Other research interests include the constructions of gender and space in contemporary women’s poetry, on which she has also published a number of articles.