Call for Papers

Summer 2016 Meeting of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society

Stoweflake Mountain Resort - Stowe, VT

Resort Website

Online Registration

During an extended period of self-imposed isolation following his graduation from Bowdoin, Hawthorne embarked on a tour of New England and the Hudson Valley. In 1832, he visited Burlington, Vermont, where he enjoyed the town square and Lake Champlain, and made observations about the locals, especially the Irish laborers. In the December 9, 1835 edition of New England Magazine, Hawthorne published an anonymous account of his visit to Burlington, titled "The Inland Port" which you can read here. In the following years, he would make several more references to Vermont in various sketches. Pursuing these lesser-known but fruitful connections, the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society is pleased to host its next summer meeting in Stowe, Vermont.

While we eagerly welcome papers inspired by or in the spirit of this tour, we also invite proposals for papers on any topic related to Hawthorne and his circle. Fully developed sessions, with three speakers and their abstracts and a chair, may also be submitted. Below are some suggested subjects:

• Immigration and Emigration
• Early American Nationalism and Nation-building
• Travel, Tourism and Transportation
• New England
• Ethnicity and Race
• The Irish
• Gender and sexuality
• Isolation
• Anonymity
• Nature Writing and The Environment
• 19th-century American Periodicals
• The Family
• Religion
• Crime
• Transatlanticism
• Reading
• Literary Influence
• Early Hawthorne (Hawthorne in the 1830s, Fanshawe, published work that predates Twice-Told Tales)
• Approaches to Teaching Hawthorne (we will hold a roundtable)

We would also like to encourage faculty to consider submitting proposals that include qualified undergraduate scholars.

You need not be a member of the NHS to submit a proposal, but all presenters must be members of the society.

Send proposals to Sam Coale at samcoale at cox.net (substitute @ for at) by December 11, 2015.

  Summer 2016 Meeting of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society

Stoweflake Mountain Resort - Stowe, VT
June 2-5, 2016

Resort Website

Online Registration

During an extended period of self-imposed isolation following his graduation from Bowdoin, Hawthorne embarked on a tour of New England and the Hudson Valley. In 1832, he visited Burlington, Vermont, where he enjoyed the town square and Lake Champlain, and made observations about the locals, especially the Irish laborers. In the December 9, 1835 edition of New England Magazine, Hawthorne published an anonymous account of his visit to Burlington, titled "The Inland Port" which you can read here. In the following years, he would make several more references to Vermont in various sketches. Pursuing these lesser-known but fruitful connections, the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society is pleased to host its next summer meeting in Stowe, Vermont.

We hope you can join us! Use the registration link and resort link above for more information.

Nathaniel Hawthorne Society CFPs

One for MLA and

One for a Special Issue of The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review

MLA 2016 CFP:
"Hawthorne and Milton"

Co-sponsored by The Nathaniel Hawthorne Society and The Milton Society

Connections sought include images of nation; uses of bible and classical mythology; representations of gender and sexuality; race and racism; aesthetic theory; early and later careers.

250 word abstracts by 1 March 2015; David Greven (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Ann Coiro (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Nathaniel Hawthorne Review
Hawthorne and Influence: Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and the Romantics

Papers are sought for a special issue of The Nathaniel Hawthorne Review on this topic that will be edited by David Greven. Ideally, papers will focus on some aspect of Hawthorne's intertextual engagement with Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and/or Romanticism. Essays that explore the intersections among aesthetics, gender, sexuality, and/or race will be especially welcome, but any topic will be welcome. Once a prominent aspect of literary criticism and theory, the question of influence has been relegated to the sidelines and classified as redolent of a discarded "humanism." This special issue seeks to revisit the question of influence in order to engage anew with its aesthetic and political potentialities without reinstating its traditional conservatism. A major university press has expressed interest in an edited collection that will stem from this special issue.

Essays should be between 6000-8000 words. Please submit proposals and CVs to David Greven (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by March 30, 2015; completed essays will be due by September 1, 2015.

Call for Papers: “Hawthorne in the Berkshires”

Deadline: February 28, 2014

Nathaniel Hawthorne Society Summer Meeting
June 12-15, 2014
North Adams, Massachusetts

Hosted by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Reconstruction of Hawthorne's "Little Red Farmhouse" at Tanglewood

In 1850 Hawthorne moved his family to Lenox, where for almost two years he produced a range of literary work: The House of the Seven Gables and a new edition of Twice-ToldTales,as well as The Snow Image and Other Twice-told Tales, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, and other works for children. Related to this productivity were his new friendships with Herman Melville in nearby Pittsfield and Catharine Sedgwick, Grace Greenwood, and other women who were part of that “d----d mob of scribbling women.” The scenic region, which had become a summer playground for the very rich, also brought him into contact with Shakers, artists, mill owners and workers, and church-goers of all persuasions—contradictory personalities and forces which also impacted his later works. In Lenox, the Hawthornes learned of Margaret Fuller’s death with its accompanying questions about a woman’s professional role and domestic arrangements. In a nutshell, there were dizzying contradictions in Hawthorne’s observations and associations while he was in Lenox.

Proposals for “Hawthorne in the Berkshires” should address some facet of the work that was inspired by or produced during the writer’s Berkshire phase. Papers that explore Hawthorne’s influence on (or work by) neighboring writers and artists, or that examine the cultural, economic, religious, and social contexts of the region in the early 1850s, are also welcome, as are those which reflect on the author’s legacy on this 150th anniversary of his death in 1864.

Please send 250-500 word abstracts to Jason Courtmanche at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Deadline is February 28, 2014.

Melville's "Piazza" below his study at his farmhouse in Pittsfield

Conference venue will be the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, with affordable dormitory housing available in single or shared rooms, the Holiday Inn in walkable downtown North Adams, and various local B&Bs. Possible planned excursions for Saturday afternoon include Arrowhead and the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Hancock Shaker Village, an iron kiln such as inspired Ethan Brand, or a former mill site. Organizers can facilitate individual plans for a Sunday hike on Mount Greylock or Monument Mountain, with a stop at the reconstructed “The Little Red House” in Lenox, depending on interest. Other sites within short walking distance of MCLA include historic Eclipse Mill with its artist galleries, Natural Bridge and Hudson Falls, which inspired a description in Hawthorne’s American Notebooks during a visit in 1838, and the acclaimed Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). The downtown architecture is dominated by “the seven steeples of North Adams,” a range of monumental 19th-century churches and a synagogue. North Adams is easily accessible by car, or travelers may fly into Albany, Boston, or NYC airports and travel by train or bus to Pittsfield, where a short shuttle service is available to North Adams. All inquiries about the conference site and travel particulars should be addressed to Rosemary Fisk at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Registration and housing costs will be announced by early fall 2013. Graduate students who present papers will be subject to a housing rebate, depending on dormitory availability.

You can visit the "Hawthorne in the Berkshires" Facebook page and the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society website for more information.

“Hawthorne in the Berkshires”

Nathaniel Hawthorne Society Summer Meeting
June 12-15, 2014
North Adams, Massachusetts

Hosted by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Reconstruction of Hawthorne's "Little Red Farmhouse" at Tanglewood

In 1850 Hawthorne moved his family to Lenox, where for almost two years he produced a range of literary work: The House of the Seven Gables and a new edition of Twice-ToldTales,as well as The Snow Image and Other Twice-told Tales, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, and other works for children. Related to this productivity were his new friendships with Herman Melville in nearby Pittsfield and Catharine Sedgwick, Grace Greenwood, and other women who were part of that “d----d mob of scribbling women.” The scenic region, which had become a summer playground for the very rich, also brought him into contact with Shakers, artists, mill owners and workers, and church-goers of all persuasions—contradictory personalities and forces which also impacted his later works. In Lenox, the Hawthornes learned of Margaret Fuller’s death with its accompanying questions about a woman’s professional role and domestic arrangements. In a nutshell, there were dizzying contradictions in Hawthorne’s observations and associations while he was in Lenox.

Melville's "Piazza" below his study at his farmhouse in Pittsfield