Dear Editor,
After three decades of its existence, the Guyana Prize for Literature has come of age. As part of its rites de passage the Prize has undergone a change. The name of its founder, President Hugh Desmond Hoyte, is not even mentioned once on the Prize’s Website. This act by the management committee is nothing short of intellectual dishonesty and is total disrespect for the founder of the Prize. The management committee has managed to demote the founder and promote itself. It celebrates the victors but not the visionary. Thus, in all its documentation, the committee observes the year 1987 as the genesis of the award. This was the year when the first awards were actually handed out to the victors. The fact is that the founder articulated his vision of the Prize in very precise terms and announced it, a full one year earlier in August 1986. It therefore means that the 30th anniversary of the Prize will be August 2016. A whole generation has grown up since the announcement of this prestigious Prize. This is the Guyana Prize Generation.
Many critics of the Prize have advocated its disbanding, stating that it has not achieved its objectives to recognize Guyanese writers at home and abroad and to stimulate creative writing. Well, I believe that it has not only done that brilliantly, it has also served as the single most successful institution in Guyana to embrace the elusive Guyanese dream of unity in diversity. A perusal of the winners since the inaugural conferment of the Prize in 1987 would reveal what Sir Shridath Ramphal describes as a ‘rainbow people’. Every ethnic group in Guyana is adequately represented among the Guyana Prize laureates. Of the 30-plus laureates, one-third are ethnically diverse women; namely, Beryl Gilroy, Denise Harris, Maggie Harris, Pauline Melville, Paloma Mohamed, Grace Nichols, Elly Niland, Ryhaan Shah, Janice Shinebourne and Myriam Chancy. The diversity is even more pronounced among male winners and short-listed entries. Through the works of our laureates, thousands of students in Europe, North America, the Caribbean and further afield have been influenced directly or indirectly in thought, word or deed. Several Guyana Prize books are required reading in colleges and universities around the world. That is the measure of the Guyana Prize. Its creation was a noble act, birthed in the midst of adversity, when Guyana was undergoing an Economic Recovery Programme. That is why it will last.
I must agree however with Mr Lennox Cornette that the Prize “has reached its nadir” under the present management committee (Stabroek News, Nov 3). I believe it is time to rebrand the Prize. In the process of rebranding, the visionary of the Prize should be elevated to his pride of place among the Guyana Prize generation. This would be a noble act which should not generate any controversy among Guyanese, for indeed, Desmond Hoyte should be regarded as Guyana’s ‘Alfred Nobel.’
The present management committee should be dissolved and be transformed from being just the caretaker of the Prize. Caretakers become possessive over time and claim squatters rights. A new institution should evolve, The Desmond Hoyte Literary Academy. Such a prestigious academy would attract international attention with support from a solid faculty of Guyana Prize laureates. Each laureate could be asked to serve as Guyana Prize Laureate-in-Residence for specific periods during the year. The spin-off would be priceless. Local aspiring writers and artists will benefit directly from sitting at the feet of the masters, and writers workshops would flourish at all levels. The academy would raise the international profile of the University of Guyana and serve as the repository not only for Guyana Prize works but for works by all national, regional and international thinkers and scholars.
Yours faithfully,
Standhope Willams
