Welcome to the Milton Society of America

We are an inclusive community of readers and scholars, bound together by the study of the seventeenth-century author John Milton.


Milton Society Annual Dinner 2025

The Milton Society Annual Dinner 2025 will be held on Friday, 21 March 2025, at Maggiano’s Little Italy. The Dinner will feature a talk by the MSA Honored Scholar 2024, Sharon Achinstein, and a poem by this year’s MSA Annual Dinner Poet, Camille Guthrie.

There will be a cash bar open to all at 6:30pm with dinner to follow at 7:30pm.

Tickets for the Dinner should be bought in advance, through the payment portal below, by 15 March 2025. Dinner tickets are at $90 for tenured faculty and $70 for all others. 

Ticket type
Any dietary restrictions?
Optional preferred name for place card:

Congratulations to the MSA Honored Scholar 2024

Sharon Achinstein


Congratulations to the recipients of MSA Awards 2023, as announced in AY 2024-2025

Hanford Book Award

Winner—Thomas Vozar, Milton, Longinus, and the Sublime in the Seventeenth Century (Oxford 2023).

Hanford Essay Award

Winner—Amanda Atkinson, “The Figura Serpentinata in Paradise Lost,” Studies in Philology 120:2 (Spring 2023): 340-70.

Irene Samuel Award

Winner—Islam Issa and Angelica Duran, eds., Milton Across Borders and Media (Oxford 2023).
Honorable Mention—Stephen Dobranski, ed., Milton Studies: Milton and Shakespeare, 65:1 (2023).

Isocrates Award

Winner—Jim Holstun, “Black Abdiel and the Higher Law: James Monroe Whitfield vs. the Fillmore Faction,” ELH 90:1 (Spring 2023): 137-203.

John T. Shawcross Award

Winner—Kevin Killeen, “Miltonic Vertigo and a Theology of Disorientation,” The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural Philosophy and the Poetics of the Ineffable (Stanford 2023).

Albert Labriola Award

Winner—Katie Mennis, “Latinizing Milton in the English West Indies,” Milton Across Borders and Media (Oxford 2023), 71-89.
Honorable Mention—Aidan Selmer, “‘Through a Glass, Darkly’: Paradise Lost and Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians,” Milton Studies 65:2 (2023): 223-51.

MSA Governance

Constitution and Bylaws

Society Officers

MSA Goals

The Milton Society of America aims to further Milton scholarship, not only in the U.S. but internationally, by bringing Milton scholars together at an annual dinner, by selecting outstanding scholars for honor, by publishing an annual booklet (and maintaining a website) honoring these scholars and summarizing the work of the Society, by gathering books, articles and other materials pertaining to Milton, by encouraging research in progress, and by promoting exchange of ideas in the field of Milton study (adapted from the Society’s Constitution).

Keep us in the loop!

One of the goals of the MSA is to make sure our members know about the accomplishments of other members. If you have Milton-related publications, conferences, news, or updates, please submit them using our news update form.

About the Website

The current version of the website was created with help from PeakZebra.com.