Wendt wins Japanese award

1.00pm

Auckland writer Albert Wendt has been named as the recipient of a major award in Japan.

Samoan-born Wendt, Professor of New Zealand literature at the University of Auckland, will get the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture and a Y3 million ($44,689) honorarium.

The Nikkei Asia prizes are awarded annually by a Japanese newspaper for regional growth, science and culture.

"Prof Albert Wendt's works introduce the traditions and cultures of Samoa and other Pacific Island nations, previously only passed down orally, in plain yet lyrical English for readers around the world," award organisers said in a statement.

"His approach to deal with people's resistance and frustration to aboriginal cultures and traditions, anguish of locals in colonised lands, and clash between traditional culture and western civilisation, has won him not only regional but also a worldwide reputation."

The award will be presented in a ceremony in Tokyo on June 2.

- NZPA