O'Sullivan, Vincent - Literary papers of Vincent O'Sullivan

Vincent O’Sullivan (b.1937, Auckland, New Zealand) lectured at Victoria University, Wellington (1963-1966, 1988-2004) and Waikato University, Hamilton (1968-1978). In the following years he was the literary editor of the New Zealand Listener (1979-1980) and Writer in Residence (1981-1987) at several Australian universities and at Victoria University where he taught as Professor of English Literature from 1988 till his retirement in 2004. He also served as Director of Victoria’s Stout Research Centre from 1997-2004.

O’Sullivan’s literary career spans over fifty years, with works comprising more than a dozen collections of poetry, several novels, plays and five short story collections. He has also written on New Zealand authors, edited the Oxford anthologies of the country’s poetry and short stories and, with Margaret Scott, five volumes of Katherine Mansfield’s letters (1984-2008). Recipient of many literary awards and the ‘Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship’ in Menton, France, in 1994, he was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2000, received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in 2005 and received an honorary Ph.D. from Auckland University in 2008.