The ‘Animism and Folklore of the Guiana Indians’ by Walter E. Roth, and ‘Mama Dot’ by Fred D’Aguiar were two volumes added to the list of those already published under the Guyana Classics series, by the Caribbean Press.
Speaking at the launch of the books at the Umana Yana Wednesday evening, Minister of Culture Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, stated that in the Caribbean, the avenue for Caribbean writers to publish themselves was closed.
After a series of discussions with President Bharrat Jagdeo, government, in 2009, allocated money to start the Caribbean Press through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
The idea behind this initiative is to publish not only Guyanese but other Caribbean writers’ work, after realising their creativity and capability.
“Many of those books there, if we had not published them, would not have been available to this generation of young people in Guyana, and one of the things that we have been doing is that, as we publish them, we are putting them in the National Library, and the university library and in school libraries, because the knowledge that is contained here is very valuable to young people so that they can understand not only the history of the country but, also literature,” said Minister Anthony.

Renowned Guyanese writer, Dr. Ian Mc Donald, who also addressed the launch, said he was grateful that the publications under the Guyana Classics series had not been a one-off event, but is continuing,
Three hundred copies of the books launched Wednesday will be donated to the National Library, University of Guyana’s library and schools’ libraries.
In 2009, the first 12 books in the series were published and after seeing the quality of the finished product, resources were provided to publish more.
Government has lauded the contributions of Professor David Dabydeen and Ian Mc Donald in the realisation of the Guyana Classics.
(GINA)