Dr Alexander Bubb wins University English Book Prize
- Sunday, June 3, 2018
Dr Alexander Bubb, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing, has won the University English Book Prize 2017.
He won for his monograph, Meeting Without Knowing It: Kipling and Yeats at the Fin de Siècle (Oxford UP), which explores the relationship between the two poets. Although Rudyard Kipling and WB Yeats were born in the same year, were first published in London in the same newspaper, shared an early patron and sparred in the political arena, no previous book has united them within a single frame of reference.
The judges described Dr Bubb's work as ‘an intriguing study which compares Kipling and Yeats in the formative phase of their careers, charting mutual echoes in their poetry and political rhetoric to establish shared concerns. The judges found it an extremely thoughtful piece of work, individually insightful on different aspects of Yeats and Kipling. The author is ingenuously aware of the difficulty of what he has taken on, and the experiment is cleverly and consistently pursued. The points of linkage are illuminatingly taken up in turn, and the sense of an encompassing networked London literary world is evoked very successfully. The judges found it a striking and stylish piece of writing.’
Dr Bubb was presented with his award at the University English Annual General Meeting on 14 April 2018 at the University of Lancaster. He said of the award, ‘During the reception at Lancaster University, none of the four nominees knew the result until it was publicly announced, so it was an exciting experience as well as a tremendous honour to be awarded the UE Book Prize this year. Though it was tough going, gradually bringing Meeting Without Knowing It to realisation was a source of great satisfaction to me and I hope it continues to give pleasure and interest to readers.’
University English, formerly The Council for College and University English, was founded in 1993 to promote the study of English in higher education. They award an annual prize for the first books written by early-career researchers.
The English and Creative Writing department at Roehampton provides a variety of courses taught by lecturers who are leaders in their fields.