George Herbert died a disappointed courtier and diligent country parson in the tiny Wiltshire village of Bemerton in 1633. Yet he left behind him a small sheaf of poetry and prose manuscripts which made him, in death, one of the most popular writers of his age, a spiritual guide to millions since, and a poet’s poet whose influence extends across the Atlantic and around the globe. In order to explore the connections between this priestly poet’s Wiltshire world and his print and cultural legacies worldwide, Sarum College in Salisbury, Wiltshire and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro are cosponsoring two linked international and interdisciplinary conferences:

George Herbert’s Pastoral: Poetry and Priesthood, Past and Future
October 4-7, 2007, Sarum College, Salisbury, England
Plenary Addresses by:
Helen Wilcox, University of Wales, Bangor
Cristina Malcolmson, Bates College
David Jasper, University of Glasgow

George Herbert's Travels: International Print and Cultural Legacies
October 9-11, 2008, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA
Plenary Addresses by:
Richard Strier, University of Chicago
Elizabeth Clarke, University of Warwick
Judith Maltby, Corpus Christi College, Oxford

We are pleased to announce that the conference will now be extended into the evening of Thursday, October 9, and will be opened by a shared reading by two distinguished American poets:

--Carl Phillips of Washington University, Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets

--Mark Strand of Columbia University, former U. S. Poet Laureate and Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize

For Calls for Papers, Information, and Pre-Registration, please see links at upper left.