Maualaivao Albert Wendt ONZ CNZM is a writer, poet, anthologist, teacher, and scholar and is regarded by many as the forefather of Pacific literature. Wendt has published numerous works of fiction, poetry and plays as well as non-fiction including Sons For The Return Home (1973), Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1980), Ola (1991), Adventures of Vela (2009) and a short memoir Out of the Vaipe, The Deadwater (2015). Wendt is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland, and holds four honorary doctorates: a Doctorate of Literature from the University of Bourgoyne, France (1993), a Doctorate of Literature from Victoria University (2005), a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Hawaii (2009), and a Doctorate of Literature from the Univesite-o-Samoa (2015).