This panel seeks papers relating to the construction of friendship in early modern women's writing for a session at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference (Vancouver, BC, October 22-25, 2015) to be sponsored by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. Paper topics might include (though are certainly not limited to) literary representations of friendship; women's epistolary rhetoric; gift exchange between friends; patronage and friendship; networks or communities of female friendship; literary coteries; expectations surrounding women's and men's friendships in the period; notions of privacy and/or publicity in the expression of friendship. This panel seeks to explore notions of early modern women's friendship as manifested in the written word – private or public, literary or epistolary.

Please send 150-word abstracts (for papers to be 20 minutes in length), a one-page CV (max 300 words), and specifications of any A/V requirements to Kirsten Inglis kainglis@ucalgary.ca by March 20, 2015. All submissions will be acknowledged and successful presenters notified by March 25, 2015. After submission, this panel will be subject to approval by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women http://ssemw.org/ The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference website can be found at http://www.sixteenthcentury.org/conference/