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Portrait of a Writer at 54!

Updated on 27 July 2018. 2:07pm.


I see myself as a writer scholar—a unique position that defines the various engagements within and outside of academia, more particularly as a writer and scholar living and working in Oceania.

'I think of myself as a rower of the ocean, taking the winds and currents of Oceania, traveling in and out of islands, around islands, carrying with me the burden of our collective experiences, always rowing to get somewhere to link up all our peoples, and teaching our people and others to appreciate our cultures, arts, way of life and knowledge systems.'

I participated in many activities in the Asia Pacific Region primarily as a writer and scholar of Pacific literature.

Last year (2017) I participated as an Asia Pacific writer in the Writers Immersion and Cultural Exchange (WrICE), run out of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne. The program involves a writer’s residency in Philippines, in Geelong (Victoria), and participation in the Melbourne Writers Festival.

I had participated as a Guest Speaker in the Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature, New Zealand (November 28, 2017).

In 2016 I participated in the Beijing International Book Fair as a writer and publisher.

I am preparing a book: Unwriting Oceania: Studies in Pacific Literature and Indigenous Knowledge, for the publication with University of Hawaii.

In May 2017 the Oxford University Press published my contribution to history of the novel in English since 1950s: “Indigenous Pacific Fiction in English: The First Wave.” Oxford History of the Novel in English: The Novel in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific since 1950. Vol. 12. Edited by Coral Ann Howells, Paul Sharrad, Gerry Turcotte. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.499-510.

I have written or edited/co-edited the following books:

2016       Muruk na Pato. Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers
2016       Jupi and the Magic Feather. Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers
2015       A Turning Point: Buimo Prison Writers. Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers in Association with Bible Society of PNG.
2014       Land Echoes. Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers.
2013       Transitions and Transformation: Literature, Politics, and Culture in Papua New Guinea. Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers.
2012       Detwan How? Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers.
2010       The Unpainted Mask. Port Moresby: UPNG Press and Manui Publishers.
2009       A Rower’s Song. Port Moresby: Manui Publishers.
2000       Hembemba: Rivers of the Forest. Suva & Port Moresby: Institute of Pacific Studies, USP & Language and Literature Department, UPNG.
2009      Reframing Knowledge: Cultural Knowledge and Practices in Papua New Guinea. Port Moresby: Melanesian and Pacific Studies, UPNG.
2005       Zia Writers of Waria: Raitim Laip Stori (with Sakarepe Kamene), Port Moresby: Melanesian and Pacific Studies.
1997       The Contemporary Pacific (Special Issue). Logging the Southwestern Pacific: Perspectives from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu  (with Kathleen Barlow). Honolulu: Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawaii Press.
1992-2004         Savannah Flames: Journal of Papua New Guinean Literature, Language and Culture. Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea.

Other well-known essays are listed below:

2016    Trobriand Tower of Babel. Radical Flame magazine. Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
2015.   Blogging in PNG. Tweets from the Field: Ethnographic Update. . Ed. Forest Young et al. University of Hawaii, 2015.
2015    Customary Law is a Living Law, Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom: Themes from the Pacific Islands. ICHCAP-UNESCO, South Korea.
2010    Reconstituting Indigenous Oceanic Folktales. Scholars Space—University of Hawaii.
2010    Chief of Oceania (Epeli’s Quest: Essays in Honor of Epeli Hau’ofa). The Contemporary Pacific. 22:1, 114- 116 (101-123).
2009    Bridging Science and Indigenous Knowledge. Addressing National and Global Issues Through Scientific Research and Development. Edited by Prem P. Rai (Port Moresby:  UPNG School of Natural and Physical Sciences and School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 14-30.
2009    Unmasking History and Memory in Pacific Fiction. Papua New Guinea Journal of English Studies. 1: 1, 1-14.
2005    PNG Women Writers Finding the Paths Through Limitation. Kunapipi: Journal of Postcolonial Writing. XXVII: 2, 131-134.
2005    Dialogics of Literacy Education in Papua New Guinea. Sustainable Curriculum Development: the PNG Curriculum Reform Experience.  Edited by Paraka M. Pena. (Port Moresby: Papua New Guinea Department of Education), 86-96.
2003   Preface. Building a Nation: Views of the Post-Independence Generation. Edited by David Kavanamur, Charles Yala and Quinton Clements. (Canberra: Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University), xi-xv.
2003.     Transition and Transformation. Meanjin on PNG. 62: 3, 169-177.
1999       Unwriting Oceania: The Repositioning of the Pacific Writer Scholar Within a Folk Narrative Space. New Literary History 31: 3 (Summer 2000), 599-615

I write about literature, language, literacy, cultures, indigenous knowledge systems, books, libraries, media technologies, education, writing, tourism, museums, art, PNG politics and social change. These are archived in my blog: www.stevenewinduo.blogspot.com


I currently serve as Director of Academic Audit Unit of the University of PNG.
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