About
Edmund Spenser (c.1552-1599) is among the most dazzling, difficult, electrifying, challenging, and rewarding of all poets. Yet his legacy is complicated: in the centuries since his death he has been praised as a visionary genius, and lauded as the ‘poet’s poet’; he has also been reviled for his role in colonial violence in Ireland, and decried as an apologist for state power.
What unites many readers of Spenser is a belief that wrestling with and enjoying his writing is something best done together, in company. This is the conviction which underpins the activities of the International Spenser Society, a scholarly organization devoted to the reading and study of Spenser’s works. The ISS is committed to sustaining close engagement with Spenser’s writings – as a way of confronting the social and cultural complications of his time and of our time, and for the sheer pleasure of reading him.
The ISS pursues these goals by organising various kinds of events and opportunities for discussion, and recognizing outstanding scholarship through prizes and awards.
The Society sponsors conference sessions at the Modern Language Association Convention, the Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, and the Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting. In recent years it has also supported the British and Irish Spenser Seminar.
In addition to these in-person activities the ISS also organises a lively online programme of events. These include the ongoing monthly series ‘Spenser at Random,’ which involves communal discussion of a stanza from The Faerie Queene chosen by a random number generator, and events under the umbrella of the Society’s ‘Inclusive Pedagogy Initiative,’ which explore strategies for teaching Spenser in relation to contemporary questions of race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, and class.
The ISS sponsors the Colin Clout Award for lifetime achievement in Spenser studies; the Isabel MacCaffrey Award for the best new book or article on Spenser; the Anne Lake Prescott Graduate Student Conference Paper Prize; and the annual Hugh MacLean Memorial Event.
You can join the ISS email list by writing to Chris Barrett [link], and become a member here [link]. The ISS is always keen to hear from members and others with ideas for Spenser-related activities. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events!