Congratulations to Reanna Brooks who has been awarded the Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize for her thesis on Beyond the Manuscript: Exploring the Materiality and Craftsmanship in Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press.
The Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize is awarded for the best doctoral thesis in English literature at the University of Oxford. The prize was established in 2018, according to the wishes of Swapna Dev's husband, to honour the interest that she had in English literature.
Reanna Brooks’s doctoral thesis, Beyond the Manuscript: Exploring the Materiality and Craftsmanship in Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press, reconsiders Woolf’s involvement in the physical production of books, particularly her work as a printer, typesetter, and bookbinder. Drawing on archival research, publishing records, and the close examination of surviving copies, the thesis examines how Woolf’s material practices shaped her understanding of authorship and the aesthetic identity of the Hogarth Press. Through previously undocumented examples of Woolf’s bookbinding and new evidence concerning the circulation of the Press’s handmade publications, the study challenges established distinctions between artistic experimentation and commercial publishing, offering a new perspective on Woolf’s place within modernist print culture.
Reanna commented: "I’m incredibly honoured to receive the Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize, though I’m very conscious that this achievement is not mine alone. I’ve had the immense privilege of being surrounded by extraordinary supervisors, mentors, colleagues, friends, and family whose generosity and encouragement made this work possible. I’m equally conscious that the opportunity to spend uninterrupted years thinking, researching, and writing about a topic I love is itself a rare privilege, and one that far too few people are afforded."
