Dear Editor,
The late Mohamed Fazloor Yasin was undoubtedly one of the greatest literary voices in Guyana; he passed away five years ago. I met Mohamed Yasin in 1999 when he was the secretary for the Association of Guyanese Writers and Artists and Roopnandan Singh was the President.
I was a young writer at the time, performing readings of my poetry and fiction and was able to get some of my writings published in some anthologies edited and published by Mr Singh.
A few years later I became friends with Mr Yasin when I was a judge for the Guyana Annual competitions. I encountered many of his short stories as a judge for the Short Story and Poetry category. The contest was judged anonymously but the stories which myself and the other judges evaluated as the winning ones were written by none other than Mr Yasin, and won first, second and third prizes in various categories for a number of years.
He also wrote some inspiring poetry, though poetry was not within his range of writing. However, the few pieces I read were filled with profound imagery and symbolism that left an indelible impression on my mind as a poet myself. He mastered the art and craft of short-story writing as though he were the Ernest Hemingway of Guyana and the wider Caribbean, and won an award for his mesmerising short story Crab-man in 1999 in the Commonwealth Broad-casting Association short story competition. This was an immense feat very few Guyanese have ever achieved.
Mr Yasin was a very private person, a man of impeccable character and dignity who never spoke of his literary achievements, and asked me to read his writings publicly at several prestigious readings where many literary scholars were in attendance.
His stories were mostly written for young adults on a variety of themes with a great cast of characters from all walks of life. In 2001 he participated in a Cropper Foundation Crea-tive Writing Work-shop in Trinidad where he was taught in detail about fiction writing in a number of genres.
He especially enjoyed writing for children, for which I believe he had a gift and was inspired to do.
His stories were published in several anthologies, such as, Tek Mi! Noh Tek Mi! alongside some distinguished literary giants like Cherrell Shelley-Robinson, Eintou Pearl Springer, Nellie Payne, and a host of our own Guyanese writers whose works were published as the winning stories in the Guyana Annual edited by Petamber Persaud for many years.
His major stories were also published in the Poui literary journal published by the Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature, University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus for a number of years.
Mr Yasin encouraged me to submit my writings to the editors of Poui and these were accepted for publication several times.
In 2008 he won the Cheddi Jagan essay competition from 38 entries submitted from across the country carting off the $100,000 first prize.
He was a very versatile and prolific writer and a keen editor of verse and prose. He wrote a fantastic introduction to my book of 300 poems: The Revelation of Love, published in May 2009, and was my editor for a number of years. I remember he would say to me: ‘’Don’t repeat yourself; change your metaphoric language in your poetry; let your poems be like a fresh rose.’’
The presence of Mohamed Yasin was a warm one; full of humour, care and courtesy – one glance at him and his elegant smile like that of an Indian film star would relieve my day of all its stress and worries.
He was a very kind, loving and open-hearted person, and it is my sincere hope that his spirit will live on through the legacy of his work and that future generations will continue to be inspired by his immortal stories.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
