Professor Maebh Long is honoured her book on the ‘golden age’ of Oceanian literature is shortlisted for a Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize.
A book co-authored by Professor Maebh Long, Otago’s Eamon Cleary Chair in Irish Studies, has been shortlisted for a Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize.
The Rise of Pacific Literature: Decolonization, Radical Campuses, and Modernism is co-written with Dr Matthew Hayward. The work explores the ‘golden age’ of Pacific literature in the 1960s and 1970s, when staff and students of two newly founded universities in the Pacific Islands helped foster a powerful movement of Oceanian literature.
The Rise of Pacific Literature: Decolonization, Radical Campuses, and Modernism by Professor Maebh Long and Dr Matthew Hayward, Colombia University Press.
Maebh says she and Matthew are honoured to be shortlisted for this prize.
“The monograph stems from a decade-long project on Oceanian literature, modernism, and education, which we started when we both worked at the University of the South Pacific. We were privileged to be there to learn from brilliant Pacific writer-scholars,” says Maebh.
In a moment of collegial synergy, Associate Professor Grace Moore from the English and Linguistics programme at Otago has been the editor of this international publication since January 2024.
Grace wasn’t part of the selection panel and will recuse herself from the judges’ final deliberations this year. She says she is especially pleased to see Maebh and Matthew’s “wonderful book” among the contenders.
“It’s marvellous to see a colleague on the shortlist, and everyone involved in the judging of the award is delighted by the very high calibre of submissions from across the world,” Grace says.
The winners will be announced in early December.
The Literary Encyclopedia, founded by Dr Robert Clark of the University of East Anglia, celebrates 25 years this September. Written and edited by university specialists who own the publication collectively, it publishes biographies of major and minor writers, scholarly descriptions texts written by these authors, and a variety of descriptive and critical essays on literary, cultural, and historical matters.
The Encyclopedia seeks to cover all of world literature and grows by 20-30 articles a month.
Read more about The Rise of Pacific Literature: Colombia University Press