“Who Should You Write For?”: Competing Spheres of Print Culture Production in Colonial Papua and New Guinea

As the colonies of Papua and New Guinea were being prepared for self-government (1973) and independence (1975), three competing spheres of print culture production emerged, each of which developed programs and institutions in parallel and often mutually exclusive ways. These spheres, centred with the colonial administration’s Literature Bureau, the University of Papua New Guinea’s Literature Department, and the Christian missions’ Creative Training Centre, each offered a literary journal as a publication venue for newly trained writers. An analysis of these journals offers a unique glimpse into the publication choices made by young writers at a critical juncture in their personal and professional histories.