One of the Oldest American
Single-Author Societies

Support our mission by becoming a member today.

Since 1945, the Melville Society brings together scholars, readers, and artists through the study and appreciation of the life and works of the author Herman Melville.

LEVIATHAN
A Journal of Melville Studies

Our award-winning journal, published three times a year by Johns Hopkins University Press, and available online at Project Muse

Volume 26 (2024)

decorative image of ship's rigging

Fourteenth International Melville Society Conference

“Oceanic Melville”

University of Connecticut (maritime campus), Avery Point, CT, USA

June 16-19, 2025

News & Announcements

 
News
Moby-Dick Marathon 2025
Moby-Dick Marathon 2025

Join the Melville Society Cultural Project and friends at the New Bedford Whaling Museum for the 2025 Moby-Dick Marathon, January 3 to 5, 2025, for one of the world’s most renowned readings of Herman Melville’s iconic American novel, Moby-Dick. The Moby-Dick Marathon features a 25-hour read-a-thon from Saturday to Sunday, interspersed with exciting Melville-inspired activities. Enjoy engaging conversations with scholars from the Melville Society Cultural Project (MSCP), live performances, hands-on activities, and more.

Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at the 2025 American Literature Association Conference
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at the 2025 American Literature Association Conference

Call for Papers: The Melville Society is sponsoring two panels at the 2025 American Literature Association Conference, which will be held in Boston, MA, May 21st-24th, 2025.

Billy Budd at 100 Virtual Roundtable - September 28, 2024 at 1:30 Central
Billy Budd at 100 Virtual Roundtable - September 28, 2024 at 1:30 Central

Join us Saturday, September 28th for a virtual roundtable on Billy Budd at 100, moderated by Brian Yothers and Jennifer Greiman of Leviathan and featuring John Bryant, Wyn Kelley, John Paul Wenke, Edouard Marsoin, and Lenora Warren.

Hennig Cohen Prize Deadline September 15th
Hennig Cohen Prize Deadline September 15th

Please consider submitting or nominating articles and chapters on the works of Herman Melville published in 2023 for consideration for the Hennig Cohen Prize. Deadline Sept. 15th, 2024.

Call For Papers: Fourteenth International Melville Society Conference, 2025
Call For Papers: Fourteenth International Melville Society Conference, 2025

Call for Papers: Fourteenth International Melville Society Conference - University of Connecticut (maritime campus), Avery Point, Connecticut, USA, June 16-19, 2025 / Deadline for Proposals: October 15, 2024 / Conference Theme: Oceanic Melville

Melville Society Panels at MLA 2025
Melville Society Panels at MLA 2025

The Melville Society has submitted two panels for the 2025 Modern Language Association annual convention, which will be held in New Orleans, January 9-12, 2025. Read the panel descriptions and panelist rosters here.

2022 Hennig Cohen Prize Award
Announcements
2022 Hennig Cohen Prize Award
Announcements

The Hennig Cohen Prize for 2022 is awarded to Justina Torrance for her essay, “Melville’s Milton: Of the Devil’s Party and Knows It," published in A New Companion to Herman Melville, edited by Wyn Kelley and Christopher Ohge (Blackwell).

Announcements
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at MLA 2025
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at MLA 2025

Call for Papers: The Melville Society is sponsoring two panels for the 2025 Modern Language Association annual convention, which will be held in New Orleans, January 9-12, 2025.

Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at the 2024 American Literature Association Conference
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at the 2024 American Literature Association Conference

Call for Papers: The Melville Society is sponsoring two panels at the 2024 American Literature Association Conference, which will be held in Chicago, IL, May 23rd-26th, 2024.

Moby-Dick Marathon 2024: January 5-7
Moby-Dick Marathon 2024: January 5-7

From January 5 - 7, 2024, the New Bedford Whaling Museum will host one of the world’s best known readings of Herman Melville’s iconic American novel, Moby-Dick.

Melville Society Panel at MLA 2024: Thursday, January 4th at 12:00 noon
Melville Society Panel at MLA 2024: Thursday, January 4th at 12:00 noon

“Medical Melville” - a roundtable sponsored by The Melville Society at the MLA 2024 convention, Thursday, January 4th at 12:00 noon.

Neither Believer nor Infidel: Book Talk with Jonathan A. Cook - Thursday, 19 October at 7pm EST on Zoom!
Neither Believer nor Infidel: Book Talk with Jonathan A. Cook - Thursday, 19 October at 7pm EST on Zoom!

Join us on Thursday, October 19, 7 PM EST on zoom for a presentation and discussion with Jonathan A. Cook exploring the 19th-century debate between religious skepticism and Christian faith in Herman Melville's shorter fiction and poetry.

Organized by the Melville Society and Melville's Marginalia Online.

Melville Society Cultural Project and New Bedford Whaling Museum win NEH Grant for 2024 Teacher Institute
Melville Society Cultural Project and New Bedford Whaling Museum win NEH Grant for 2024 Teacher Institute

The New Bedford Whaling Museum, in association with the Melville Society Cultural Project, has been awarded a $196,290 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for its project “Moby-Dick and the World of Whaling in the Digital Age.” The grant will fund a three-week Summer Institute for Teachers in 2024.

Call for Nominations: Hennig Cohen Prize
Announcements
Call for Nominations: Hennig Cohen Prize
Announcements

Call for nominations for the 2022 Hennig Cohen Prize. Deadline to submit nominations: September 30, 2023.

Announcements
“A Melville Gam” with Jennifer Greiman & Cody Marrs (Wednesday, June 28th, 8:00pm ET, Zoom)
“A Melville Gam” with Jennifer Greiman & Cody Marrs (Wednesday, June 28th, 8:00pm ET, Zoom)

Join us for “A Melville Gam,” a discussion with and between recent Melvillean authors, Jennifer Greiman and Cody Marrs. They will be speaking about their recent books, Greiman’s Melville’s Democracy: Radical Figuration and Political Form (Stanford UP, 2023), and Marrs’s Melville, Beauty, and American Literary Studies: An Aesthetics in All Things (Oxford UP, 2023). This event is free and will be held by zoom; please register in advance.

A Melville Gam with Jennifer Greiman and Cody Marrs

Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 8:00PM EST

$25,000 Matching Pledge for the Murray Endowment
Announcements
$25,000 Matching Pledge for the Murray Endowment
Announcements

In honor of the Melville Society’s 75th anniversary, Professor Dennis Berthold has generously pledged to match donations in any amount up to $25,000, directed to the Society’s Murray Endowment, between June 1 and November 1, 2023.

Announcements
Keio Academy of New York Tricultural Lecture Series: “Melville and Mutiny” - Saturday, May 6, 2023
Keio Academy of New York Tricultural Lecture Series: “Melville and Mutiny” - Saturday, May 6, 2023

Saturday, May 6th, at 10:00am, Dr. John Bryant, Professor Emeritus of English, Hofstra University, will present “Melville and Mutiny: From the Pacific to Wall Street,” addressing Melville’s transformation of himself and his characters in his involvement, in his life and his research, in mutinies, as they appear in “Bartleby” and “Billy Budd.”

Venue: Speakers' Hall, Keio Academy of New York (3 College Road, Purchase, New York 10577)

Melville Society Panels at the 2023 American Literature Association Conference
Melville Society Panels at the 2023 American Literature Association Conference

The Melville Society has organized two panels at the 2023 American Literature Association Conference, which will be held in Boston, MA, May 25-28th, 2023. Draft Schedule listed here.

Call For Papers: “Melville’s Queer Afterlives”
Call For Papers: “Melville’s Queer Afterlives”

Call for Papers: a proposed special issue of Leviathan on “Melville’s Queer Afterlives”

2021 Hennig Cohen Prize Award
Announcements
2021 Hennig Cohen Prize Award
Announcements

The Hennig Cohen Prize for 2021 goes to Daniel Diez Couch and Michael Anthony Nicholson for their article “Silent Eloquence: Literary Extracts, the Aesthetics of Disability, and Melville’s ‘Fragments,’” which was published in Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies.

Announcements
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at MLA 2024
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at MLA 2024

Call for Papers: The Melville Society is sponsoring two panels, plus one panel co-organized with the Conrad Society, at the 2024 Modern Language Association Convention, to be held in Philadelphia, PA, January 4-7, 2024.

Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at the 2023 American Literature Association Conference
Call For Papers: Melville Society Panels at the 2023 American Literature Association Conference

Call for Papers: The Melville Society is sponsoring two panels at the 2023 American Literature Association Conference, which will be held in Boston, MA, May 25-28th, 2023.

Call for Nominations: Hennig Cohen Prize
Announcements
Call for Nominations: Hennig Cohen Prize
Announcements

Call for nominations for the 2021 Hennig Cohen Prize. Deadline to submit nominations: December 21, 2022.

Announcements
Announcing Travel Grants Awarded For the 2022 International Melville Society Conference
Announcements
Announcing Travel Grants Awarded For the 2022 International Melville Society Conference
Announcements

Announcing Travel Grants Awarded for the 2022 International Melville Society Conference in Paris

Announcements
13th International Melville Society Conference - Paris, France: June 27-30, 2022
13th International Melville Society Conference - Paris, France: June 27-30, 2022

Summary of the Thirteenth International Melville Society Conference, “Melville’s Energies,” in Paris, France, June 27-30th, 2022

International Melville Society Conference - Registration Deadline 15 April 2022
International Melville Society Conference - Registration Deadline 15 April 2022

Register by April 15, 2022 for the Thirteenth International Melville Society Conference, “Melville’s Energies,” in Paris, France, June 27-30th, 2022

Call For Papers: MLA 2023
Conferences
Call For Papers: MLA 2023
Conferences

Calls for Papers for 2 panels at the Modern Language Association 2023 Convention

Conferences
Travel Grants Supporting Participation in the 2022 International Melville Society Conference
Announcements
Travel Grants Supporting Participation in the 2022 International Melville Society Conference
Announcements

Announcing Travel Grants supporting participation in the 2022 International Melville Society Conference in Paris

Announcements
2020 Hennig Cohen Prize Award
Announcements
2020 Hennig Cohen Prize Award
Announcements

The 2020 Hennig Cohen Prize has been awarded to Édouard Marsoin for his article “‘No Land of Pleasure Unalloyed’: Economies of Pleasure and Pain in Melville’s Typee and Omoo”

Announcements
Call For Papers: ALA 2022
Conferences
Call For Papers: ALA 2022
Conferences

CFP for American Literature Association 2022 Conference

Conferences