New at The Spenser Review: CINEMATIC SPENSER! An issue-length argument that "Spenser is the most cinematic of our early modern poets" (sorry, Shakespeare). They say Hollywood is dying; could a Faerie Queene franchise save the film industry? Watch this space... www.spenserreview.org

Thanks to those who attended our Inclusive Pedagogy Initiative event on Teaching Race and Place with Spenser! And thanks to our wonderful speakers: Zainab Cheema, Eli Cumings, Claire Eager, and Justin Shaw. For those unable to make it, the recording should be available soon at spensersociety.org.

Backe to returne to that great Faerie Queene,

We had a great time at Spenser@Random last week talking about this stanza from Book 6 about a confusing 2-on-1 fight. It starts with an awkward insult ("foule womanwronger"!) and ends with a rather courteous simile ("like to that heauenly sparke..."):

Spenser@Random in just a few minutes! 🔮 🔀 📙 🔀 🎲 🔀 📘 🔀 🧚 🔀 📕 🔀 👸 🔀 📗

Our next Spenser@Random is this Thursday! 12pm EST/5pm GMT Join us for bibliomantic adventures as we spin the digital wheel of destiny and are led by the cyberfates to a randomly selected stanza from The Faerie Queene. No registration needed; click to join: cam.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Today!

Our next Spenser@Random is TOMORROW! 12pm EDT/5pm BST. We'll be Colin Clout-chasing as we read a random stanza from The Shepheardes Calender. Everyone is welcome, including livestock. Join here: cam.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?...

CFP: ISS-Sponsored Panels at RSA 2026 We're accepting abstracts for: 🤣 Funny Spenser (roundtable) 🚚 Spenserian Translation (panel) 🎭 Spenserian Genres (panel) Deadline has been *extended* to July 31. Links to CFPs below!

CFP: ISS-Sponsored Panels at RSA 2026 We're accepting abstracts for: 🤣 Funny Spenser (roundtable) 🚚 Spenserian Translation (panel) 🎭 Spenserian Genres (panel) Deadline has been *extended* to July 31. Links to CFPs below!

We sadly need to cancel today’s Spenser@Random. Apologies to all who have registered, and we hope to reconvene randomly soon!

Spenser@Random returns tomorrow! Thursday, June 26, at 12pm EDT/5pm BST. Join us as we spin the digital wheel of destiny and are led by the cyberfates to a randomly selected section from The Shepheardes Calendar! Register here: cam.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Registration link for THE OCCASION OF THE MACLEAN now live! stanford.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

🚨🚨🚨 ATTENTION: starting soon! 🚨🚨🚨

SPENSER IN AN AGE OF DISTRACTION, our Inclusive Pedagogy Initiative event, is tomorrow! Register here: binghamton.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Happy St. George’s Day!

Seize the occasion and catch up on episodes of OCCASION OF THE SEASON here: occasionoftheseason.substack.com/podcast

SAVE THE DATE!  ISS AGM / Maclean Event Wednesday 21 May, 9am PST/12pm EST/5pm BST Join us to celebrate a year of The Shepheardes Calender Podcast, hosted by Kat Addis. Featuring producers & poets from behind the scenes, as well as a few friends of the pod. Registration link coming soon!

Join us on April 24 for a lively discussion of how teaching Spenser can solve the crisis of attention in the classroom! Or at least distract us from other crises. Register here: binghamton.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,

Thanks to all who attended our most recent Spenser@Random, where we read this stanza from Book 4, Canto 8, which offers the cure for male loneliness: find a friend who looks just like you and is easily confused with you, physically and also grammatically.

THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QVEENE. Contayning THE LEGENDE OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE, OR OF HOLINESSE.

No fooling: Spenser@Random is TODAY! Register here: binghamton.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Thanks to all who came to Spenser@Random yesterday, where the wheel of fortune fell on this stanza from Book 6. We had wonderful discussions about crying babies, space and time, sight and sound, epic and tragedy, and at last, at length, we realized there is always more to say about Spenser.

Not too late to register for Spenser@Random TODAY @ 12pm EST/5pm GMT! Join us as we read a randomly selected stanza from The Faerie Queene. lsu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The @spensersociety.bsky.social has a new website!: www.spensersociety.org Take a look for all things Spenser, including the Spenser Review.

Guess the seminar from the whiteboard challenge.

International Spenser Society invites abstracts for a session on Spenser and catastrophe at MLA 2026 in Toronto. Come catastrophize with us! mla.confex.com/mla/2026/web...

Thanks to all who came to Spenser@Random with @saaupdates.bsky.social to discuss our randomly selected sonnets by Spenser and Shakespeare! Shakespeare's no-nonsense family planning sonnet is especially funny next to Spenser's exaggerated Petrarchan stylings and "sudden dumps"

ICYMI: join SAA and the International Spenser Society for Spenser AND Shakespeare@Random. 📆 Wednesday, January 29, 2025 ⏰ 12pm EST/5pm GMT 📍 on Zoom This event is free, but registration is required. Click for more info: buff.ly/4h8il92

This is such a cool idea.

This is always great fun, but Xtra fun this time due to SAA crossover!!

Join us and @saaupdates.bsky.social for Spenser & Shakespeare at Random on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 12pm Eastern/5pm GMT! We'll randomly choose a sonnet by each poet to close read in randomly generated breakout rooms. Free, all welcome, registration required: lsu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

29 Dec 1590: Edmund Spenser's #poetry collection 'Complaints' entered on the Stationers' register #otd

Chivers binding, The Faerie Queene #BlueSkyBooks #Bindings

Huge congratulations to our very own Dr Namratha Rao on winning the English Literary Renaissance Outstanding Essay Award for “Ground-plots of Invention: Poetics of the Material and Difficult Thinking in the Faerie Queene”. www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/elr...

The December episode of Kat Addis's Shepheardes Calendar podcast is out! A convo with Hannah Crawforth about nostalgia and EK's real identity 👀 Plus Joseph Minden reading Spenser's poetry and his own Listen now to these season's greetings: occasionoftheseason.substack.com