Another dimension of the Guyana Prize for Literature
-An unannounced winner: Peepal Tree Press
THERE IS more to The Guyana Prize of Literature than meets the eye. We see the obvious intent and purpose which is to “provide a focus for the recognition of the creative writing of Guyanese at home and abroad, [and to] stimulate interest in, and provide encouragement for, the development of good creative writing among Guyanese in particular and Caribbean writers in general.”
We see and delight in the big moments: The awarding of prizes and special prizes. But there is more to The Guyana Prize than meets the eye. The Prize is responsible to some degree for the publication of more Guyanese books. The Prize is directly or indirectly responsible for the birthing of new publishing enterprises.
A major aspect of the book industry is publishing — book publishing.  Writers are important, so too are editors, literary agents, critics, readers, proof readers etc, etc, etc. Book publishing is not a consideration in the determination of the winner(s) of a literary prize. But book publishing could tell a lot about the development and direction of a people’s literature.
Peepal Tree Press is responsible, in a major way, for the burgeoning of Guyanese Literature. A look at the listing of publishers of books shortlisted for The Guyana Prize 2010 reveals that Peepal Tree Press has published two of the three books in the fiction category, and three of the six books in the poetry category.
Another look would reveal that Peepal Tree has produced the winning book in the poetry category. A look at the listing of shortlisted books for The Guyana Prize Caribbean Award reveals that Peepal Tree has produced three of the five books in the fiction category, and four of the six books in the poetry category. Peepal Tree Press produced the winning books in both categories.
In fact, Peepal Tree Press has contributed to The Prize and Guyanese Literature in a major way since The Prize was initiated in 1987. A look at the shortlisted books from then to now reveals the Peepal Tree Press produced some thirty-five of those books. Another look would reveal that the Peepal Tree Press has produced fourteen winners.
Peepal Tree Press has a certain kinship with Guyana. Peepal Tree Press was actually birthed in Guyana. ‘Backdam People’, written by Rooplall Monar, was the first book published by Peepal Tree Press.
A number of things happened with that first publication. It advanced the career of Monar; it formed the foundation of what is now a highly successful small press; and it showed that the publisher, Jeremy Poynting, has a finger on the pulse of Guyanese Literature. (Poynting’s article on Guyanese Literature is one of the best such article on the subject.)
“The idea for Peepal Tree began in the ruins of the former Lusignan sugar estate on the East Coast Demerara in Guyana in 1984. My friend Rooplall Monar was acting out several of the stories he had written, but was in despair at their ever seeing the light of day.
Writers in Guyana usually went to the local printery, or Sheik Sadeek with his Adana, but in those bad, grim Burnham days, there was no paper to be had, even smuggled. I volunteered to organise the printing of a small run (400 I think) back in England.
The idea for the name came from the research I was doing. I wondered about ‘Banyan’ first, but it didn’t have the right ring. There were also peepal trees in the Caribbean (I recall a poem by an early Indo-Guyanese poet, Jacob Chinapen that described estate workers sitting under a peepal tree telling stories at the end of the day).
It seemed a good metaphor (and pun) for something that was transplanted as a symbol both of staying connected to origins and putting down roots in a new environment. There was also a certain political point to the name. At the time, in the mid 1980s, the position of Indians in Trinidad, and particularly Guyana, was one still of cultural marginality and political exclusion.
Much has changed since then, but I wanted the name to be both Indian and Caribbean. So, Backdam People became the first Peepal Tree publication, ‘typeset’ on a daisywheel printer and printed in the evenings at the college where I worked. New Beacon Books, all praise to John La Rose and Sarah White, who were my inspiration, sold quite a few in their bookshop; I took them to the Black, Third World and Radical Bookfair, and began to learn that publishers had to be salesmen too (a difficult lesson for a sheltered Further Education lecturer), and of course sold quite a few in book-starved Guyana.
Sadly, the Guyana dollar was devalued from about $8 to the £1 to over $100 to the pound just after these were sold. There was another lesson about the intricacies of export, one that was reinforced later when our former US distributor when bust, and when a certain Trinidadian bookseller skipped off the island with her new American husband, leaving her large debts behind.
But Peepal Tree has never been discouraged for too long. Backdam People began what was a serious but quite expensive hobby, bringing out one or two books a year, until a friendly printer sold me an old Rotaprint offset press (it did depend on an elastic band) and with the help of my then teenage son, we began printing (that statement conceals many painful hours of trial and much error) Peepal Tree books in our garage.
When the Arts Council gave me a grant, we bought an ear-splitting old folding machine and were really in business. A year or two later we were encouraged to put in a bid to the Arts Council for development funding. (They were evidently impressed by the fact that we actually delivered the books we promised.) I wrote the first business plan of my life (of astonishing naivety I see now, though no one in the Arts Council recognized this).” [Peepal Tree Press website]
Let it be known I hold no brief for Peepal Tree Press, because some of my writings (including my first novel, ‘Overtures’) submitted (placed in the hand of Jeremy Poynting at the office of Red Thread, Charlotte Street) over a decade ago are lying somewhere in the office or have already hit the dustbin. (A little editorial help from Jeremy Poynting would have gone a long way in fostering my career as a writer. Now that I have shifted my interest in Guyanese Literature to promoting Guyanese Literature, I ought to get from that press review copies of, in the least, Guyanese books. Yes, I beg a lot for books – tools of my trade.)
But Peepal Tree Press is definitely an unannounced winner of The Guyana Prize for Literature. And I duly recommend a special prize be awarded to this press.
(To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)