The Barbara Reynolds Award 2014

The Dorothy L Sayers Society is delighted to announce the results of the Barbara Reynolds Award held to celebrate Barbara’s 100th birthday. We received twelve entries of serious academic publication. Many thanks go to Carolyn Caughey, Professor Ann Loades and Geraldine Perriam who, with Margaret Sangster, formed the judging panel. Our thanks go to the authors of these works, many of whom published their work in respected journals. It is good to see DLS’ life and works are being explored at such a high level.

The main Barbara Reynolds Award of £5000 goes to Bethany Wood for her article “Incorporation of the Incar(nation): Dorothy L. Sayers’ Man Born to be King” in Ecumenica: Journal of Theatre and Performance. The judges found this work insightful, with new ideas and a good perception of her topic. The article had a clear, intellectual argument well supported by evidence; an absorbing read.

A Highly Commended Award of £1000 has been made to Christine Fletcher. The judges found Christine’s book The Artist and the Trinity: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Theology of Work (published by Pickwick, an imprint of Wipf and Stock), makes a strong contribution to social theology, interestingly drawing together art, work and theology, and is well supported by a wide range of research evidence.

The other worthy entrants were:

• Caroline Barta: “That Precious Balance: Harmonizing Temperance in Dorothy L Sayers’ Gaudy Night” in VII: an Anglo American Review.
• Crystal Downing: “Steeped in Steeples” in Journal of Inkling Studies.
• Ariela Freedman: “Dorothy Sayers and the Case of the Shell-Shocked Detective” in Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas.
• Monica Lott: “Dorothy L Sayers, the Great War, and Shell Shock” in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies.
• Martin Ferguson Smith: “Dorothy L Sayers and the Somersham Pageant of 1908” in VII: an Anglo American Review.
• Gwendoline Stark: “A Proper Job”? Acting as work and Vocation in Theological Perspective with Particular Reference to Dorothy L Sayers (PhD thesis).
• Victoria Stewart: “True Crime Narratives and Detective Fiction in Interwar Britain” in Clues: A Journal of Detection.
• Chris Willerton: “Dorothy L. Sayers, Dante and the Modern Reader” in Journal of Inkling Studies.
• Kyoko Yuasa: “Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis: Christian Postmodernism beyond Boundaries” in US-China Education Review.

In recognition of the special anniversaries this year, an additional award is also being presented to Stacy Gillis for her article “Consoling Fictions: Mourning, World War One and Dorothy L Sayers”. Technically this is ineligible for the Barbara Reynolds Award as, although it was re-edited and reprinted in 2010, it was from an original publication of 2007. The judges considered that it is of sufficiently high quality with clearly communicated ideas, and its subject makes it of particular relevance to the coincidence of the WWI 100th anniversary and Barbara Reynolds’ 100th birthday celebration.

See also original announcement of award.

All enquiries regarding the Award should be directed to barbara.reynolds.award@sayers.org.uk.