John Donne Society - Annual Conference

With the spring of 2021 well on its way, and the excellent presentations – and visual images – of our second Webinar still persistent on our minds, we are preparing for the third John Donne Webinar, titled “Metaphysical Variations.” The present theme is a salute to the centenary of Herbert J. C. Grierson’s 1921 volume of Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of The Seventeenth Century, and an acknowledgement of the importance of his work for Donne studies in the past one hundred years, and for the future.

This third John Donne Society Webinar will take place on Friday 9th April 2021, at 7 pm to 9 pm GMT, 2 pm to 4 pm EST, and 11 am to 1 pm PST. Our two panellists, Dayton Haskin and Kimberly Johnson, will first introduce the topic of Grierson’s work and the revival of Donne, as well as the influence of this on scholarship and on Modernist poetry. The introductions will be followed by a dialogue between the two panellists, and then discussions among the participants. While starting with Grierson, we will also discuss the importance of reading – and teaching – Donne, as well as poetry in general. To attend, sign up beforehand via the John Donne Society Webpage here.

We are inviting you all to participate, and also to share your own thoughts about the significance of Donne and his poetry in our modern world. We started our Webinar sequence considering “Teaching Donne in Emergent Occasions,” and now we seek to find the meaningfulness and purpose of teaching Donne, not only in the pandemic era, but also beyond these trying times, and for a better future.

I am very much looking forward seeing and hearing you on-line in April. Please feel free to share the invitation.

On behalf of the Executive Committee and the Webinar Programme Committee,

Dr Maria Salenius
President
The John Donne Society

The 2005, 20^th Anniversary Conference

"Old Friends, New Friends, and John Donne Forever"

2005 marked the twentieth anniversary of the John Donne Society conference, which was held at the Lod and Carole Cook Conference Center at Louisiana University. The meeting featured a three-day program, an exhibit of photographs from past conferences, an "edition" of the Donne Conference limericks (Fasciculus Limerickorum), an uncut rendition of the "Donne Variorum Blues," and an awards ceremony at which special recognition was given to the founders and past presidents of the society. There was, of course, the usual spirited camaraderie at our many "receptions," and the anti-conference was distinguished by an especially prolific outpouring of new limericks and the awarding of a number of "special" awards to various members.

The Lod and Carole Cook Conference Center and hotel on
the State University campus in Baton Rouge, LA.

John Donne Society Webinars

The 2005, 20th Anniversary Conference

The 2005, 20^th Anniversary Conference