Dr Hetta Howes is a Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at City, University of London, and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She regularly contributes to broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and 4, as well as writing for publications such as The Times Literary Supplement and BBC History Extra. She has a BA and MPhil from Cambridge University and a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. Howes has published on the tropes of crying and cleansing in medieval Passion meditation, on blood and shame in medieval lyrics, and on the role of sight in fourteenth-century alliterative verse. Her academic book Transformative Waters in Late Medieval Literature was published by Boydell and Brewer in 2021. Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife is her first book for a popular audience.