Arise Sir Wilson, Part 1

Jul 11, 2010 Features / Columnists, Guyanese Literature

– By Petamber Persaud

On bended knee to rise again to new heights; on bended knee to rise, again, to new levels of recognition, rise again, rising to different levels of consciousness, to be discovered and re-discovered, to be invented and re-invented, to be read and re-read, to be endowed and re-endowed with a new lease of life – that’s the story of the life and work of Wilson Harris.
The recent knighthood of Harris conferred by the Queen of England is another form of re-discovering, re-inventing, re-visiting, re-reading Harris.
Harris would be humbled and humble by such an honour – that’s the nature of the man and his writing, engaging the mind from various angles, extending the conversation in different directions, eking out diverse responses.
The knighting of Harris is the first time a Guyanese writer would be so honoured and this means a lot to Guyanese literature – this will serve to erase the nagging perception by writers that there is a lack of respect for the work of writers, reinforcing the fact that there is indeed healthy respect for producing good literature and that governments do acknowledge the importance of their writers.
In fact, every award and every honour conferred on a Guyanese writer adds to the validity, vitality, volatility and development of Guyanese literature. And those awards and honours amount to a healthy list: Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Grace Nichols, David Dabydeen), Commonwealth Fiction Prize (Mark McWatt, Karen King-Aribisala), Gabriela Mistral Commemorative Medal from the Government of Chile (Martin Carter), Casa de las Americas Literary Prize (Harry Narine, McWatt), T. S. Elliot Poetry Prize (Fred D’Aguiar), Whitbread First Novel Award (Pauline Melville), Raja Rao Prize of India (David Dabydeen), Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (Seymour, Ian McDonald, David Dabydeen) among others.
All of the above mentioned names except for King-Aribisala, Harry Narine, and Seymour have won the Guyana Prize for Literature, some on more than one occasion.
The life and work of Harris are coloured with numerous awards and honours.
Wilson Harris is the recipient of five honorary doctorates. In 1968, he obtained an Arts Council Grant, and in 1971, he was a Commonwealth Fellow in Caribbean Literature at Leeds University, UK. He held the revered position of writer-in-residence at many universities around the world including places like Australia, New York, Texas, Toronto and Cuba.
In 1987, he won the inaugural Guyana Prize for Literature in the fiction category and in 2002 he was awarded the Guyana Prize Special Award. In 2003, the University of Warwick staged a conference in honour of Harris. In 2009, he was honoured by XXVIII Conference on West Indian Literature staged in Guyana (Edgar Mittelholzer was also honoured on that occasion).
In 1968, Wilson Harris was a delegate to the National Identity Conference in Brisbane and in the same year, he was a delegate to UNESCO symposium on Caribbean Literature held in Cuba.
In 1970, he was part of the Convention of Caribbean Writers and Artists held in Guyana planning for what turned out to be the Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta). During that visit to Guyana, he delivered a number of talks in the Edgar Mittelholzer Memorial Lecture Series. (Both Harris and Mittelholzer were born in New Amsterdam, Berbice, Guyana. Mittelholzer wrote twenty-three novels. Harris has twenty-four novels to his credit and is still writing.)
Harris’ short stories appeared first in KYK-OVER-AL as early as the 1940s. About the same time some were aired on ‘Caribbean Voices’. His stories were anthologised in prominent collections including West Indian Stories, West Indian Narrative and Caribbean Rhythm.
Some of his poems were collected in three volumes; FETISH, 1951, ETERNITY TO SEASON, 1952, and THE WELL AND THE LAND, 1952.
He has written numerous essays on topics including ‘The Enigma of Values’, ‘Fossil and Psyche’, ‘Greatness and Bitterness’ and ‘The Making of a Book’.
Wilson Harris has written and published some twenty-three novels since his first, PALACE OF THE PEACOCK, appeared in 1960. THE MASK OF THE BEGGAR (2003), gives a possible starting point that led Harris on the road of his remarkable literary achievement.
When Wilson was only eight, he starting reading, THE ODYSSEY, with the help of his mother, Millicent. The Ulysses of that book became one of the motifs Harris employed in his writing.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@ yahoo.com
What’s Happening
• The Guyana Annual 2010 issue is now available at Guyenterprise Ltd. on Lance Gibbs and Irving Streets, Queenstown.
• The new closing date for the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport poetry and short story competition for school is July 15, 2010. Please contact me for more information. This competition includes three follow-up components via a writers’ workshop using entries submitted, performances of shortlisted entries and a publication of the outstanding works. Entries can be mailed to me in care of the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport or dropped in box provided in the ministry’s security hut.