Companion was edited by Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy.
[1][3] Companion includes about 2,700 entries about women writers and associated topics such as genres and literary movements.
[4] Entries focus on biographical details over literary criticism,[5] seeking to show the lives from which women's writing emerged.
[6] The editors included entries on writing not typically considered literary, such as diaries and letters, in order to counteract received narratives of what literature can be.
[7] Companion emphasizes women's relationships with one another and lists mothers before fathers when describing a subject's parentage.