014 PASCALL PRIZE: James Ley" src="http://i1.createsend1.com/ei/r/AA/589/067/csimport/James_Roland_rgb72.162106.jpg" >

Congratulations to James Ley, recipient of the 2014 Pascall Prize Australian 'Critic of the Year'. Pictured above with Geraldine Pascall Foundation Chairman Roland Gridiger, Melbourne-based James Ley is currently the editor of the Sydney Review of Books. 

James has been a professional literary critic for almost two decades. His essays and reviews have appeared in many publications, including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Meanjin, Overland, Australian Book Review and the Times Literary Supplement.

James holds a PhD in literary studies from the University of Western Sydney and has just released his new book The Critic in the Modern World: Public Criticism from Samuel Johnson to James Wood' published by Bloomsbury.

The Pascall Prize judging panel noted "Whatever its ostensible subject, Ley's writing displays a conscious appreciation of the past, present and emerging nature of criticism from Dr. Johnson to James Wood and beyond...The insights Ley gleans from this more considered approach are invariably original, trenchant, witty and elegant. He operates at the point where scholarly precision and essayistic liberty intersect."

The award presentation event was held before a large and appreciative audience as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival on 23 May 2014. Last year's Pascall Prize recipient Kerryn Goldsworthy announced Ley's win and spoke on behalf of the judging panel. Roland Gridiger, Chairman of the Geraldine Pascall Foundation, presented the Pascall Prize.

014 PASCALL PRIZE: James Ley" src="http://i2.createsend1.com/ei/r/AA/589/067/csimport/JamesLey_AcceptanceSpeech_screengrab.165412.png" >

"...I do not consider criticism to be an adjunct or supplement to literature proper, but an integral part of literature. It is not the most glamorous or exciting or celebrated part, but it is an essential part nonetheless. And it falls to criticism, as that specialised part of literature... to articulate its value and its meaningfulness, in the face of the Gradgrinds of this world."

James Acceptance Speech on YouTube

> via pascallprize.org.au