Latest update April 7th, 2025 6:08 AM
The silence from local writers and literary pundits on the Guyana Prize debate is deafening!
DEAR EDITOR,
There is an ongoing debate on the future of the Guyana Prize for Literature that can end with the present Government of Guyana abolishing it altogether. While it is going on, the silence from local writers and literary pundits is deafening.
Where are the voices of former at-home Guyana Prize for Literature winners? Why the silence? I asked the question of an at-home colleague who’s also a writer and who has already made his input. He responded: “Why? Because they frighten! They don’t want to rock the boat!”
Such a fear is unusual for writers, and it begs a salient question: Is this silence the death knell of literary aspirations in Guyana? When I lived in Guyana I believed (and still do), that writers stand bravely through their craft and that the key role of writers—be they poets, playwrights, novelists, or essayists—is to keep societies aware and Governments honest.
Guyanese poet, Martin Carter, protested through his poems. British novelist, George Orwell sounded a warning to world societies flaunting socialist hypocrisy with his novella, ‘ANIMAL FARM.’ He warned against dictatorial authoritarianism with his novel, ‘1984’. And then there was Colombian novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez who wrote surreal novels that were scathing attacks on dictatorial regimes that crippled his own country once upon a time.
Where am I going with this? I guess all I’m trying to say, is that local writers need to realize their power and stand to be counted—stand to make their voices heard at this frightening point in time when the fate of the Guyana Prize for Literature seems to be hanging in the balance.
A friend of mine who’s a writer (and still in Guyana) is convinced that most of the local writers may be rooting for the elimination of the Guyana Prize for Literature.
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?” I said to him. He said: “Most don’t understand the creative writing process; most do not read; most are not willing to work hard to become capable writers. They just want quick monetary payoffs. Too many of our local writers are satisfied with mediocrity. Maybe they’re keeping silent in the hope that the Guyana Prize, as it is, becomes a locals-only thing. No more overseas based Guyanese.”
“So, what kind of literary prize will that be?” I said.
“I guess something like the old Chronicle Christmas Annual competition,” he said. “No international judges or anything like that. Just local people.”
I weep deep inside, now, as I hereby bow-out of this Guyana Prize debate. I will not write a further letter on it. I have my own writing to work on.
Harold A. Bascom
Four-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature
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