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Nicoletta Asciuto's book shortlisted for ESSE Book Award 2026!

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Posted on Monday 20 July 2026

Nicoletta Asciuto’s book, 'Brilliant Modernism: Cultures of Light and Modernist Poetry', has been shortlisted for one of the prestigious book awards offered by the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE).

The book was selected for the award in Cultural and Area Studies in English for the Category 'First Book'. The final award ceremony will take place in Santiago de Compostela at the end of August. 

The ESSE awards six book prizes, across all areas of English studies: English Language and Linguistics; Literatures in the English Language; Cultural and Area Studies. For each area two prizes are given, one for a first book and one for the “open” category. The ESSE awards are conferred biannually in conjunction with the ESSE conference. 

Brilliant Modernism was published in January 2025 by Johns Hopkins University Press and has already received significant praise in academic reviews. Christina Walter from the University of Maryland, for example, has called the book “a rich and original contribution to the histories of modernist poetry and technological culture” and “an important new contribution” (American Literary History, 37/4, Winter 2025).