20 Facts About Lydia Wevers

Lydia Joyce Wevers was a New Zealand literary historian, literary critic, editor, and book reviewer.

Lydia Wevers was an academic at Victoria University of Wellington for many years, including acting as director of the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies from 2001 to 2017.

Lydia Wevers's father was an architect and she had four brothers, including diplomat Maarten Wevers.

The family moved to New Zealand in 1953, and Lydia Wevers became a naturalised New Zealander the following year.

Lydia Wevers grew up in Masterton and developed a love of reading as a child, saying in later life: "When I was a child, there had to be a special rule for me at Masterton public library that said I could borrow 12 books at a time instead of the usual two".

Lydia Wevers attended St Matthew's Collegiate School, where she was head girl and dux.

Lydia Wevers was the only student in her school year to attend university.

Lydia Wevers lived in Wellington, and was married to public servant and diplomat Alastair Bisley.

Lydia Wevers died at home on 4 September 2021, and was buried at Makara Cemetery.

Lydia Wevers obtained an undergraduate degree from Victoria University of Wellington, followed by a MPhil at St Anne's College, Oxford on a two-year Commonwealth Scholarship.

Lydia Wevers assisted with Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand from its inception in 2005, including writing the section on Fiction.

John McCrystal in a review for The New Zealand Herald described the book as a "little gem of a social history", in which Lydia Wevers did "a wonderful job of evoking the world of those who lived and worked at Brancepeth at the end of the 19th century".

Lydia Wevers was the director of the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University from 2001 to 2017.

At the time Lydia Wevers was appointed a part-time director, the university had been considering the centre's closure, and it was through her efforts that the centre became an integral part of the university with additional staff members, connections with other research institutes and a broad scope of research into New Zealand society, history and culture.

Lydia Wevers was a former vice-president of the New Zealand Book Council, chair of the Writers and Readers Committee of the New Zealand Festival of the Arts, and chair of the Board of Trustees of Wellington College.

Lydia Wevers was the Chair of the Trustees of the National Library of New Zealand and in 2003 became the inaugural Chair of the Kaitiaki Guardians of the National Library.

Lydia Wevers was a member of the selection panel for the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Awards in 2001, a member of the Marsden Fund Council of the Royal Society Te Aparangi, a member of the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand, a member of the selection panel for the Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement in 2019, and a board member of Aratoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, for eight years.

Lydia Wevers reviewed books for Nine to Noon on Radio New Zealand and The New Zealand Listener, as well as for a number of other magazines, newspapers and literary journals.

Lydia Wevers was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Lydia Wevers was an Honorary Life Member of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature and a Fellow of the Stockholm Collegium of World Literary History.