Literature is a hobby for science student Samir Mohammed, who won the Guyana Prize for Literature for Short Story and the Guyana Prize for Literature for Poetry, in the Youth Male categories. He intends to continue writing stories and poems and would like to see his work published.
He told this newspaper in an interview that his winning entries were dark. “They are realistic and look at some of the darker underbellies of life,” he said. “I am not trying to sugarcoat anything. I’m trying to get the message out there that people are suffering or people will be suffering.”
His winning short story, “So Does it Stare Back” was his first attempt in that genre. “It is funny I have only one short story and that is the one I won with. This is encouraging and I would like to write some more,” he said. His winning poem was “Blood and Oil”.