[Gabrielle Mohamed, Is You Madness, Nah Me Own: A Short Collection of Creole Poetry, Georgetown: Gabrielle Mohamed, 2019. 30pp]
[Gabrielle Mohamed, Blackout Daze: A Collection of Creole Plays, Georgetown: Gabrielle Mohamed, 2019. 50pp.]
Breathe in the tombs
Of our stillness, and perhaps,
You will be free.
– Gabrielle Mohamed
What does the landscape look like where contemporary work by new writers at home in Guyana is concerned? With Guyanese literature dominated by major artists residing and publishing overseas, the public is not very aware of what is being done by those at home.
The major novelists and poets still resident in Guyana whose work has been published alongside established mainstream literature, include Ryhaan Shah, Ian McDonald and Paloma Mohamed (who is primarily a dramatist). Prize-winners Imam Baksh and Subraj Singh (also a dramatist), as well as Scott Ting-A-Kee have stood out as the most outstanding talent among new young writers, but not much is known about their peers.