Ministry of Culture maintains focus on improving Literary Arts

Mar 14, 2010 News

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport continues to place emphasis on the development of literature in Guyana, especially through the mechanism of the Caribbean Press.
The publishing house funded by the Ministry and overseen by two prominent writers and academics, Drs. David Dabydeen and Ian McDonald, recently appeared in the news when it released twelve republished volumes of works either by Guyanese writers or about Guyana itself.
The works released had been out of print locally for some time and were all of historical significance to Guyanese. Dr. Dabydeen was particularly adamant that they needed to be available to the greater population at large, especially young people; as such, copies of the first releases have been donated to libraries across the country.
Furthering the aims of strengthening literature in Guyana, the Caribbean Press which is not just a publishing house and printery, is actively engaging young people across the country in competitions that will be run in secondary schools.
There will be a poetry competition for children under the age of 12 and a short story competition for youths between the ages of 13 and 18 during the final term of the school year.
The entries will then be reviewed and the most promising ones will be shortlisted to participate in a series of workshops that will lead up to the Festival of Words that will be held in December where the work of the graduates from the workshops may be performed and exhibited.
Dr. Dabydeen has already indicated his willingness to be present and to conduct the workshop along with the assistance of at least two other local or Caribbean writers.
The workshops will serve to foster a sense of importance in young writers about their art as well as seek to impart some of the necessary skills that will allow the acceptance of their work at a higher level than that which they perform at.
The premise behind the project is that getting to writers when they are young and still malleable is a sound method of ensuring that they allow their creativity to grow; it will also guarantee that the art does not disappear completely as more and more young people focus on other fields of endeavor to the exclusion of the arts.
Also on the books for the Ministry is World Poetry Day, which is currently observed on March 21. The festival which is usually celebrated in October is now under the auspices of UNESCO, hence the shift in its annual celebration date to March.
The Ministry will be inviting representatives from the various embassies and consulates of foreign nations that maintain a presence here in Guyana to a poetry reading. There will be readings of works written in these countries in their native languages as well as in English.

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Ministry of Culture maintains focus on improving Literary Arts

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