by Petamber Persaud

Literally, a literary Christmas

Guyanese literature entered into the Christmas season on an upbeat mode and ended the year 2015 on a high note especially in the area of quantity. (Quality will warrant space and time to do proper analysis.) In the meanwhile, we can bask in the glory of our literary output.The Guyana Prize for Literature
The Guyana Prize for Literature was responsible for bringing to our attention some 13 pieces of writing in short fiction, the novel and drama. That was mainly through its shortlist and the eventual winning entries. The shortlist comprised of the following entries: ‘A Dip at the Sangam’ by Rueben Latchmansingh; ‘Dancehall Lyrics : Top of the Charts’ by Keisha McCammon; ‘Rebelle and Other Stories’ by Subraj Singh; ‘Rasta Lyrics’ by Cedric Castello; ‘The Hinterlands’ by Stanley Niamatali; ‘Johnson’s Dictionary’ by David Dabydeen; ‘The Last Ship’ by Jan Lowe Shinebourne; ‘All Decent Animals’ by Oonya Kempadoo; ‘God’s Spider’ by Cyril Dabydeen; ‘60 Years of Loving’ by Maggie Harris; ‘Love in the Time of Technology’ by Sasenarine Persaud; ‘Desperate for Relevance’ by Harold Bascom; and ‘New York New York – Pieces of Dreams’ by Milton Bruce.
The Chairman of the panel of judges revealed there were 71 entries. That amount in itself is a whole lot of writing. What we do not know and there is no easy way of knowing is how many pieces of writing that were prepared for the competition but were not submitted for one or more reasons. If we were take all these efforts into account then it would be easy to speculate and say that the literature of Guyana is on sound footings.

The National Drama Festival
And there is more to add to the above. For instance, the National Drama Festival accounted for some 40 scripts submitted to the competition of which 23 plays made it to the preliminary stage and final round. Let’s extrapolate again – if we add those scripts that were prepared but were never entered evidenced by dropouts and last minute changes, then we would have a whole lot of writings with which to deal.
Here are some of the outstanding plays in that competition: Colour of Race 2; Crack Jokes; Her Story 2- Deceit & Lies; A New Beginning; Diplomatic Blow; Red; Playing Chess with a Blind Man; Daddy’s Pet; Some Other Nights; Laugh of the Marble Queen; Dance for Love; Promise Land; White House on Black Street; Trapped; Puzzle Me and Seven Deadly Sins.
The Theatre Guild Festival of One Act Plays
And there is more to add to the above. There were many excellent scripts coming out of Theatre Guild One Act Festival of Plays including Creative Burial Ground; Black Rainbow and Her Story.
The Secondary School Drama Festival
And there is more. The Secondary School Drama Festival produced some solid scripts:
Blind Trust – West Demerara Secondary
New Tales of Ole Higue – NOC/Aurora Secondary
Farewell Felicia – Bishops’ High
The Little Garden of Bitter Weeds – St. Joseph’s High
All of the above writings were solid, studied pieces in prose, poetry and drama, with some pieces pushing the frontiers of Guyanese Literature especially the scripts that were dramatized for the public.
Guyanese literature ended the year 2015 on a high note, heralding in the New Year with promises of better things to come.
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