The Guyana Prize for Literature has gone into limbo

May 19, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
The Guyana Prize for Literature that was inaugurated in 1987 by the late President Desmond Hoyte is the most prestigious literary award in the English-speaking Caribbean. The objective of the Guyana Prize is to “recognize and reward outstanding work in literature by Guyanese authors at home and abroad.”
As a concerned author, poet and literary critic, I observed some flaws in the Guyana Prize Management Committee since I was an entrant in the Guyana Prize for Literature from 1996-2006.The Guyana Prize for Literature asked for entries last year 2017 in the following categories:
The Guyana Prize is awarded to writers of Guyanese nationality in several different categories: Best First Book of Poetry, Best First Book of Fiction, Best Book of Poetry, Best Book of Fiction and Best Book of Drama. The Prize also awards Books of Poetry, Fiction and Drama in separate categories for Caribbean writers (of which Guyanese writers are also included).
The deadline for submitting to the Guyana Prize was March 31st, 2017 with the Awards Ceremony slated to be held in July last year. We are now into May 2018, about ten months past the awards ceremony due date, and writers are still waiting in blind hope to be informed of the Prize Short List and Awards Ceremony date.
Now the Prize is extended to Caribbean writers, but how can we compare this Prize to the Bocas Prize in Literature, The Booker Prize in Literature and international literary awards of outstanding merit?
This award is open for entries every two years, but very soon the entries for last year will catch up with new entries next year and the Guyanese literati remains silent about the great incompetence.
In 1987, the very first year in which the Guyana Prize was established, Dr. Ian McDonald, distinguished literary critic and author, was the Chairman of the panel of judges and a member of the management committee. In 1992, Dr. McDonald became an entrant for the prize and emerged a winner in the poetry category with his collection of poems, Essequibo. He subsequently entered again for the Prize in 2004 and won the award for the second time with his poetry collection Between Silence and Silence. He has won the Prize four times, was a Former Judge and Chairman of the management committee, and he can win again.
In the case of the Booker Prize, the Cohen Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, etc, his entry would have been disqualified since he was a former judge for the award, but the Guyana Prize has no such rule.
In 1994, Professor Mark McWatt won the Guyana Prize in the Poetry category with his collection of poems, The Language of El Dorado. In 1992, just two years before he entered for the prize, he was the Chairman of the Judges for the Guyana Prize. In 2006, Prof McWatt won the Best Book of Fiction for his novel, Suspended Sentences.
In 1992, Dr. David Dabydeen won the Guyana Prize in the fiction category with his novel, The Intended, and in 1996, he entered again for the award and was short-listed with his novel, The Counting House. In 1998, Dr. Dabydeen became a judge in the Guyana Prize. In 2000, he entered for the prize again and won with Harlot’s Progress, and in 2004, he entered for the prize and won in the Best Book of Fiction category with his novel, Our Lady of Demerara.
Professor Dennis Craig was the Vice-Chancellor at UG when the Guyana Prize was in progress, and he became an entrant in 1998 and won in the Best First Book of Poetry category for his collection Near the Seashore during that period, and worked with the Guyana Prize Committee.
It is my opinion, like any other literary awards in the world, all these former judges who became entrants for the Guyana Prize should have been disqualified.
I have read the brochure for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and its rules state: “A book shall not be eligible for entry for the Award if the author or translator thereof is any of the following:
1. A member of the Board of Management
2. A member of the staff of Dublin City Council
3. An officer or employee of IMPAC Ltd.
4. A member of the judging panel.
5. A parent, spouse or child of any of the foregoing.”
(The rules and regulations should be integrated into The Guyana Prize for Literature Brochure)
In my opinion, a judge for a literary award is a scholar and distinguished writer in the field of literature and should not compete with lesser writers in a contest. It’s not surprising that all these overseas-based Guyanese writers who were judges and entrants for the Guyana Prize are winning all the time. It’s because they are professors and well recognized authors entering the contest with published books that already won several literary awards abroad. So how can Guyanese-based writers compete with these experts with their unpublished manuscripts?
In my humble opinion, if the Guyana Prize for Literature is ever to progress in Guyana then the entire committee will have to be changed completely. The prize must be in different categories and age groups. The works of writers living abroad should be judged separately from manuscripts. Many great writers here told me they never even receive a letter of acknowledgement for their entries.
Yours faithfully,
Rev. Gideon Cecil (Author, Poet & Literary Critic)

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