Monday, May 04, 2009

NOTED AUTHOR TO BE HONOURED IN HAWAII

Influential New Zealand and Pacific writer Albert Wendt, and his partner Reina Whaitiri, are travelling to Honolulu this week where Wendt will give a public reading from his new novel, The Adventures of Vela, at the University of Hawaii. The novel is being published by Huia Publishing in June, RRP NZ$35

On Saturday, May 16, 2009, the University of Hawaii is also conferring on him the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for his contribution to education and literature in the Pacific. That will be done at the Spring 2009 Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony.
From mid 2004 to mid 2008,he held the prestigious Citizens' Chair at the University of Hawaii. He told The Bookman that the four years spent in Hawaii were some of the happiest and most productive years of my life.

This will be his third honorary doctorate. Warmest congratulations Albert. We salute you.

Albert Wendt bibliography:

Novels:

Sons for the Return Home. Auckland, Longman Paul, 1973; London, Penguin, 1987; Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
Pouliuli. Auckland, Longman Paul, 1977; Honolulu, University Press of Hawaii, 1980; London, Penguin, 1987.
Leaves of the Banyan Tree. Auckland, Longman Paul, 1979; London, Allen Lane, 1980; as The Banyan, New York, Doubleday, 1984.
Ola. Auckland, Penguin, 1990; Honolulu, University of HawaiiPress, 1995.
Black Rainbow. Auckland, Penguin, 1991; Honolulu, University ofHawaii Press, 1995.
Short Stories
Flying-Fox in a Freedom Tree. Auckland, Longman Paul, 1974;Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1999.
The Birth and Death of the Miracle Man. London and New York, Viking, 1986.

Plays
Comes the Revolution (produced Suva, Fiji, 1972).
The Contract (produced Apia, Western Samoa, 1972).

Poetry
Inside Us the Dead: Poems 1961 to 1974. Auckland, Longman Paul, 1976.
Shaman of Visions. Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1984;Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985.
Photographs, Auckland University Press, 1995
The Book of the Black Star, Auckland University Press, 2002.

Other

Editor, Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English, Auckland University Press 1994.
Editor, Some Modern Poetry from Fiji [Western Samoa, the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu ]. Suva, Fiji, Mana, 5 vols., 1974-75.
Editor, Lali: A Pacific Anthology. Auckland, Longman Paul, 1980.
Editor, Nuanua: A Pacific Anthology. Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1995; published as Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since 1980, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1995.

1 comment:

Mary McCallum said...

The details of some books you never forget - when and where you read them, pivotal scenes etc. Leaves of the Banyan Tree is one of those because I read it on a six-week trip to Samoa with my family nearly 12 years ago. It was a wonderful trip and the book helped make it so - taking me inside the fales rather than keeping me outside them like any old tourist. Congratulations to Albert Wendt on all his success. An amazing writer.