Anne J. Cruz Professor of Spanish, University of Miami The Life and Writings of Luisa de Caravajal y Mendoza Pamela Hammons Professor of English, University of Miami Katherine Austen's Book M: A London Widow’s Life Writings	‌
	Wednesday 11-5-14 8:00 PM Books & Books Public Invited Directions... Click here to watch the event via Livestream

Rejecting marriage and the convent, the Spanish noblewoman, poet, and religious activist Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza (Jaraicejo 1566–London 1614)  traveled secretly to London as a self-appointed missionary, where she was jailed twice for preaching against Anglicanism. A tireless writer, Carvajal left a small but impressive collection of spiritual poetry, an autobiography, and over two hundred letters. Anne J. Cruz has authored over 100 essays on issues of gender and genre in early modern theater, poetry, and prose, and edited or co-edited twelve anthologies and journals on the literature, culture, and history of early modern Spain and the New World. She is a co-editor of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal and editor of the Ashgate series New Hispanisms: Cultural and Literary Studies.

“Luisa de Carvajal's writings offer compelling accounts of the persecution of English recusants and insights into the political and diplomatic background … Anne Cruz's masterful introduction provides the essential literary and historical context for approaching this controversial would-be martyr.”
— Alison Weber, Professor of Spanish, University of Virginia

Katherine Austen’s fascinating multi-generic manuscript compilation of texts, Book M, provides a lively and revealing firsthand account of how a clever, self-aware, upwardly mobile woman successfully navigated her way through the perilous patriarchal world of seventeenth-century London, from the dramatic upheavals of England’s Civil Wars through the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, including a deadly outbreak of plague in 1665 and the Fire of London in 1666. Pamela S. Hammons, who specializes in early modern English manuscript culture, poetry, women’s writing, and theories of gender and sexuality, is the author of Gender, Sexuality, and Material Objects in English Renaissance Verse (2010); Poetic Resistance: English Women Writers and the Early Modern Lyric (2002); and numerous articles on early modern literature and culture.

“This excellent piece of work brings a new and fascinating seventeenth-century voice to twenty-first century readers interested in women’s studies, literature, and history.” — Margaret J.M. Ezell, Professor of English, Texas A&M University