University of Essex Professor Wins a National Book Critics Circle Award

Marina Warner, a professor at the University of Essex, received the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism at a recent awards ceremony in New York City. She was honored for her book Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights (Belknap Press, 2012). The book examines the tales generally referred to in English as the Arabian Nights and how they impacted Western culture.

Professor Warner, who was educated at Oxford University, has also taught at the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University, the University of London, and the Royal College of Art in London. In addition to literary criticism and other nonfiction works, Professor Warner is the author of five novels, eight collections of short stories, and several children’s books.