MSA Newsletter – January 2025

Dear Milton Society,

Every good wish again to each of you for 2025. Please read on for all kinds of brilliant and exciting MSA news and updates.

MSA HONORED SCHOLAR 2024

The MSA Executive Committee is delighted to announce that MSA Honored Scholar 2024 is Sharon Achinstein, Sir William Osler Professor of English at Johns Hopkins University. Warmest congratulations to Sharon Achinstein, who joins all the past MSA Honored Scholars, 1948-2023, and who will be honoured at the Milton Society Annual Dinner on 21 March 2025 in Boston.

With this announcement, I also have the pleasure of opening the call for nominations for MSA Honored Scholar 2025. All MSA members are invited to make nominations. Please write to the MSA Secretary Marissa Greenberg at MiltonSocietySec@gmail.com to submit names.

MSA AWARDS

The MSA website now proudly lists the names of recipients of all the MSA 2023 Awards as announced by the Awards Committee in AY 2024-2025. Many congratulations to all the winners. And very great thanks to the Awards Committee for their work.

PUBLICATIONS

Islam Issa’s book Alexandria has had its first two translations published, in Polish (Znak Publishing) and Greek (Pedio Books). The US edition of the audiobook was also released by Tantor Media, read by the author. In the UK, the book has been listed as one of Waterstones’ Best Paperbacks of 2024, and in the US, the Epoch Times named it the history Book of the Year. Besides scooping the Runciman Award, Alexandria was also a finalist for the London Hellenic Prize and the Bernard Lewis Prize (for a work elucidating the history of anti-Semitism). 
Islam Issa has also published a five-page feature on Milton in the UK’s bestselling history publication, BBC History Magazine. “The Long Road to Paradise” explores Milton’s life, works, and legacy. Further, he was a guest on its accompanying History Extra podcast, Life of the Week, and on Milton’s 350th death anniversary he was live on BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking, discussing Milton’s enduring relevance. He has also co-curated a special episode on Milton for BBC Radio 3’s Words and Music.
Andrew Grattan writes with news of three new epic poems. “Eucharist” is an epic poem on Christ’s Second Coming and Judgement Day in twelve books. “Jesus: a Life” is an epic poem in five books. “Vinum” is an epic poem on the History of Christianity in twenty-four books. Extracts are available on the website andrewgrattan.org.
Ayelet Langer sends word of the publication of “A Possible Source for the Term Mental Sight in John Milton’s Paradise Lost 11.418 in Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed I: 4” in Notes and Queries, vol. 71 [269], no. 3, Sept. 2024, pp. 322-325.
Philippa Earle sends news of the publication of “Miltonic Diplomacy in Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Wedding Speech,” published open access in Royal Studies Journal 11.2. 
Lee Morrissey’s book Milton’s Ireland: Royalism, Republicanism and the Question of Pluralism was published in December 2024 by Cambridge University Press. 
Amrita Dhar has published “They also Serve who only Stand and Write, or, How Milton Read Shakespeare’s Sonnets” in Shakespeare Survey 77, Shakespeare’s Poetry, pp. 147-157.

CONFERENCES

MSA MINI-CONFERENCE 2025: MILTON IN THE CURRICULUM

Milton in the Curriculum: A Global Conversation

The MSA will hold a two-hour-long virtual mini-conference on 14 February 2025 on the place of Milton in the curriculum in different parts of the world. Please save the date and watch this space and the MSA website for webinar details and the complete conference programme. The mini-conference will be held across multiple time zones in the world in the two hours corresponding to 6-8am US Pacific Time/9-11am US Eastern Time.

MSA Mini-Conference 2025 participants:
Alison Chapman (U of Alabama, USA)
Hyunyoung Cho (George Mason U Korea, South Korea)
Tianhu Hao (Zhejiang U, China)
John Leonard (Western U, Canada)
Vanessa Lim (Seoul National U, South Korea)
Doyeeta Majumdar (Jadavpur U, India)
Eva Momtaz (U of Birmingham, UK)
Mario Murgia (National Autonomous U of Mexico, Mexico) 
Orlando Reade (Northeastern U London, UK)
Cordelia Zukerman (Brearley School, USA)

All are welcome. 

CFPs

British Milton Seminar

The Spring 2025 meeting of the British Milton Seminar will be held on 14 March 2025. See the call for papers here
Canada Milton Seminar XVIII
9-10 May 2025
Victoria College, University of Toronto
Visit the website to learn more. 

MSA at RSA

The Milton Society of America is sponsoring several sessions at the upcoming Renaissance Society of America Conference in Boston 21-22 March 2025. Stay tuned for information about panels. 

The MSA Annual Dinner will be held on Friday, 21 March 2025, at Maggiano’s Little Italy (not far from the conference hotel). The Dinner will feature a talk by this year’s Honored Scholar, Sharon Achinstein.

There will be a cash bar, open to all (members and friends of the MSA alike; attendees and non-attendees of the Dinner alike) at 6:30 with dinner to follow at 7:30. 

Tickets for the Dinner should be bought in advance, through the MSA website, by 15 March 2025. The ticket purchase link will be available on the MSA website starting 15 February 2025. Dinner tickets are at $90 for tenured faculty and $70 for all others. 

The program for the Annual Dinner and Meeting, distributed at the event and then e-archived, acceptsadvertisements for relevant programs, publications, and events. Annual Dinner Booklet advertisement costs are at $50 half-page, $90 full page. Taking out an advertisement is a great way to support the MSA and help defray costs of the dinner. Please contact MSA Treasurer Lauren Shohet at Lauren.Shohet@villanova.edu for details.

In the meantime, if you know of or are participating in panels that would be of interest to members of the MSA, please let us know via the MSA news intake form at https://miltonsociety.net/news-form/. We’d love to get the word out in the next newsletter.

MSA WEBSITE UPDATE REQUEST

FINAL CALL. The MSA Officers are working to update the MSA website. Our Awards pages, in particular, do not yet list all award recipients. If you have received an MSA book or article award, we need your help now. Please check the relevant webpage for your award to check if you are listed—and whether you are listed correctly for the award and year. If any information is missing or incorrect, please write to the MSA Secretary Marissa Greenberg at MiltonSocietySec@gmail.com with full information so that the web page can be updated. 

UNEXPECTED MILTON SIGHTINGS

Outlook India’s anniversary issue on “War and Peace” opens with a line from Milton’s Sonnet 15: “For what can war but endless war still breed?”

REMINDERS

We love sharing the good news of our members’ publications, career changes, and other professional news and accomplishments. If you encounter interesting Miltoniana in your wanderings, virtual or otherwise, we’d love to share that too. Just drop us a line using the news update form on the home page of the MSA website (https://miltonsociety.net/) and also linked here: https://miltonsociety.net/news-form/

Please also recommend MSA membership to your academic friends, colleagues, and graduate students who aren’t members yet. There are so many scholars actively engaging with Milton who are not yet members of the MSA. And we have arguably the best Lifetime Membership rates out there. Spreading the word by mouth and friendship is possibly the best means to bolster our ranks. 
Amrita Dhar, MSA President