This book was a long time coming. I first had the idea for it in 1996 while I was working on my two Sappho volumes. It was then that I became committed to making a contribution to the small but growing body of scholarship on Greek and women poets. I am extremely grateful to John Drayton, Director of the University of Oklahoma Press, for his unwavering enthusiasm and support. Jennifer Cunningham and Julie Shilling, Associate Editors at the Press, have been very helpful as well. I also want to thank Paul Allen Miller and David Larmour for their belief in this project in its early stages. Professor Miller’s insights and unfailingly perceptive readings helped to make this a better book. I owe a deep dept to Marilyn Skinner, whose pioneering work on women poets in Ancient Greece has inspired much of my own interest in the poets represented in this volume.