Solomon Islands literature began in the 1960s.

History

The emergence of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

written literature (as distinct from oral literature) took place in the context of the development of indigenous

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

literature in the Pacific region as a whole, beginning in the late 1960s. In 1968, the founding of the

University of the South Pacific The University of the South Pacific (USP) is a public research university with locations spread throughout a dozen countries in Oceania. Established in 1968, the university is organised as an intergovernmental organisation and is owned by the go ...

in Suva provided a stimulus for Pacific Islander literary aspirations."English in the South Pacific"
John Lynch and France Mugler, University of the South Pacific

Creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

courses and workshops were set up. The South Pacific Arts Society was founded at the University in 1973, and published Pacific Islander literature (poetry and short stories) in the magazine ''

Pacific Islands Monthly ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', commonly referred to as "PIM", was a magazine founded in 1930 in Sydney by New Zealand born journalist R.W. Robson. Background ''Pacific Islands Monthly'' was started in Sydney in 1930. The first issue ran in August ...

''. In 1974, the Society founded the publishing house Mana Publications, followed in 1976 by the art and literature journal ''Mana''. The journal published the first anthologies of Solomon Islands poetry. Notable Solomon Islands writers include John Saunana and Celo Kulagoe.

References

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History

See also

References