We are pleased to present a small sample to give a picture of the poetry of Edgar Mittelholzer (1909 -1965), the prolific Guyanese writer best known for his several novels. Although honoured as a master craftsman and leading West Indian writer of fiction the totality of his output includes shorter works ranging from short stories or short fiction, poetry, drama and essays. While many of his novels, published between 1941 and 1965, and a few short stories, are quite acclaimed, and place him among the outstanding artists, this volume of shorter works is not so well known.
Many were self published while others appeared in Kyk-Over-Al, or in Bim, among other places, such as, very interestingly, the Pioneer Press that published The Adding Machine in Jamaica in 1954, but they were recently collected by Juanita Cox and published in one volume by Peepal Tree Press in 2018. Readers are indebted to Cox and Jeremy Poynting for Creole Chips and Other Writings, edited by Cox.