More attacks on the Guyana Prize for Literature

Jul 27, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I am delighted to respond to Mr. Al Creighton’s letter ”Guyana Prize took variety of initiatives to assist writers living here July 12, 2018 (Stabroek News).
He responded to my question about the delay of the award ceremony for last year, that’s a year now lagging behind because of a lack of funding from the government. How does he expect me to know that? May I ask?
Yet he compares this incompetent prize to literary awards abroad. This Prize was established in 1987 by President Hugh Desmond Hoyte when this nation was actually the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and one wonders why this Prize for Literature in a starving nation.
Maybe Desmond Hoyte had a motive to invite the literary brains that migrated abroad for publication and literary exposure. When Wilson Harris won the Guyana Prize in 1987 Mr.Hoyte asked Harris to remain here to work. Harris told Hoyte his offer was not lucrative enough.
I believe Hoyte had a political motive behind the Guyana Prize for Literature. That’s why this new administration should scrap this Prize and use the money to educate our young scholars.
Since the inception of the Prize in 1987, Mr. Al Creighton has been the Secretary and Administrator of this Prize for 30.5 years. May I say he is the Judge, Jury, and executor of this Prize. I don’t know of any award in this world where they will ever retain the service of one man or woman for over thirty years.
My major contention of this award was the incestuous clique of judges alternating as judge one year then entrants– winners the next year, monotonously like a spinning perpetual ”yo yo” and he has the mind to tell the Guyanese people that this practice of judges becoming entrants is a normal procedure with literary awards abroad.
That is absolutely ridiculous.
In my opinion, any literary award in the world where judges are alternating as entrants is a fraud that needs to be scrapped. If the Nobel Prize committee can award Bob Dylon the award above Sir Wilson Harris, that is very questionable. Sir Wilson Harris was cheated by the Nobel Committee.
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 as a former judge and Chairman of the management and he can win again.
His entries should be disqualified but for Al. Creighton it is OK so it means if Mr.Creighton should resign as the secretary for thirty years he can submit an entry and win the award next year.

Mr.Editor, I am currently a judge for the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2018. I was sent a twelve-page judging criteria for this award from Cambridge University. That’s very confidential; no one in my family read it and no relative or my children can be an entrant.
So as a senior judge, how will it look if I submitted an entry next year for this award? I cannot because I am barred from entering.
Mr. Creighton cannot see the morality, ethics, and integrity of this spurious literary award because he has compromised the standard of this award to give it to an incestuous clique of friends along with some scapegoats, incompetent writers, here in Guyana who have written ”literary pornography” to receive US$5000 for ‘blue book’ literature.
I am calling for a COI into this award that’s a fraud and I am willing to take the stand against Al Creighton and his corrupt committee to defend this award for the rights and dignity of our Guyanese writers who are robbed and cheated by corrupt and compromised judging. Maybe we need a referendum in parliament to scrap this award I am willing to debate it pro bono.
In closing, I wish to quote from a past Guyana Prize winner Ryhaan Shah from her Guyana Times Sunday Column July 22 captioned ”Revamping the Guyana Prize”.
”The Prize appears to be controlled by cronies who alternate as judges and winners, thus keeping the prize and monies awarded within a favoured clique. I had no interest in having my work judged by a prize committee whose integrity was questionable”
It takes a very honest mind to pen these words after reading this debate between myself and Mr. Al Creighton.
This Prize needs keen scrutiny from the government that cost millions for the Good of this Nation this government must do the honourable thing scrap The Guyana Prize for Literature.
Regards,
Rev. Gideon Cecil
(Author, Poet & Literary Critic)

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