Guyana Prize Committee hosts workshops for writers

Jan 28, 2013 News

– seeks entries for 2012 awards

The Guyana Prize Committee and the University of Guyana are continuing a series of workshops aimed at helping aspiring local writers to improve their craft.

Pauline Melville

Participants will be tutored by Guyana Prize winners Ruel Johnson and Jan Lowe Shinebourne.
The first session started in November, 2012 and was conducted by Pauline Melville. The London-based Melville has won numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writer’s Award, Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guyana Prize for Literature.
The second session will be held at 17:00 hrs today at the National Library Annexe. This two-session workshop on poetry and fiction will be conducted by Ruel Johnson, who won the Guyana Prize for Literature in 2002 (First Book of Fiction category) for his self-published collection Ariadne and Other Stories.
Today’s first segment will focus of ‘The Physics of Poetry, The Mechanics of Poetry and Poetry in the Popular Culture.’ The second, also being held today, will deal with ‘The mechanics of short fiction.’
On Wednesday at 17:00 hrs, Mr. Johnson will continue his training session which will focus on Short Fiction and Analysis.
On February 18 and February 20 there will be another workshop and these sessions will be held by Jan Lowe Shinebourne (author of Timepiece, which won the Guyana Prize First Book of Fiction). The sessions will focus on ‘Turning experience into writing’, ‘Turning geographical background into fiction’ and ‘Editing of Creative Work.’ That is described as a master class.
Another workshop on drama and editing will follow on a date still to be scheduled.

Ruel Johnson

Meanwhile, the Guyana Prize Committee is urging writers to submit entries for the Guyana Prize 2012 awards. The deadline for submissions is February 28.