Dear Editor,
I see the Guyana Prize for Literature has once again been announced, this time along with the previously postponed second instalment of the Caribbean Award component of the Prize. I maintain that the Prize has an as yet unfulfilled commitment to resident writers – the fostering of good writing here. This presumes the establishment of either standing or ad hoc developmental mechanisms, the sort of which the Guyana Prize Management Committee has perennially failed to put in place.
Last time around, some $4.7 million was said to be budgeted for workshops under the Ministry of Culture’s black-hole-of-accountability Sports and Arts Development Fund; the workshops actually conducted did not in my professional opinion reflect this expenditure. While we writers cannot rely on Dr Frank Anthony or anyone in his ministry’s machinery for actual accountability, we should insist that promised initiatives be carried out in a way that reflects the public expenditure allocated to them.
Additionally, two months is too short a time for local writers, most of whom are unaware of precisely how the Prize works, to prepare and submit work that is competitive enough. As I have suggested for years now – and it has been the opinion of chief judges of the Prize going as far back as Victor Ramraj in 2004 – there should be [standing] workshop facilities.
Another development relative to the Prize is that apparently sometime last September an ‘Institute of the Creative Arts’ helmed by Dr Vibert Cambridge was launched. Outside of the grand ‘convocation’, nothing further (like the Caribbean Press) has been made public about the
Institute’s operations and there certainly has been nothing I’ve seen with regard to a creative writing programme, a lacuna that I believe any such institute would have sought to correct in a country with a national prize for writing.
My strong recommendations as a resident writer familiar with the challenges of preparing for the Prize are that:
1) The deadline be pushed back at least two months, to the end of April in order to give resident writers a fair chance at preparing competitive work.
2) There be a public education campaign and consultations aimed at informing writers as well as the general public about the Prize.
3) There be writing workshops conducted, both open and in schools, under the aegis of the Prize in conjunction with the Institute of Creative Arts.
4) Providing that the requisite boards are put in place, shortlisted or honourable mention manuscripts from resident writers be further edited and published by the Caribbean Press.
With regard to the workshops, I had previously made public my commitment to assist in both crafting and conducting these; and my offer to assist in bringing transparency, fairness and accountability to the Caribbean Press still stands.
Yours faithfully,
Ruel Johnson
Janus Cultural Policy Initiative
