Guyanese literature was highly celebrated last February with the return of the Guyana Prize for Literature and its concomitant Literary Festival during the Republic anniversary observations. Now three months later, with the nation having just commemorated Independence Day, there is good reason to revisit it. The prize festival recognised national literature in all its manifestations, including theatre, old foundations such as oral literature and storytelling, and the new strides in popular performance poetry in the National Poetry Slam.
Recognition of these, particularly oral literature, is progressive and important since that was the area where national literature originated among the indigenous peoples in ancient history.
