By Petamber Persaud
The 2012 Guyana Prize for Literature was awarded in September 2013.
Extract of an interview with Brendan de Caires in Georgetown, Guyana, August 16, 2013.
de Caires is a literary critic and reviewer, working in Canada. He has worked in Trinidad as editor and book reviewer for the Caribbean Review of Books, (CRB) and for the review section of Caribbean Beat. He has also published other literary articles and reviews, and is a co-founder of Moray House Trust in Georgetown.
De Caries is a native of Guyana who has lived in Britain, Trinidad, Barbados, Mexico, and New York, working as editor, human rights activist and English literature and ESL teacher. He is currently program and communications coordinator for PEN Canada. This is the second time he has sat on the panel of judges for The Guyana Prize for Literature.
PP In between critical appreciation/appraisal of books, do you still get the chance to enjoy reading a good book?
BdC Very much so. In a good year, I try to read two books a week. That’s easy to do because of where I live. In Toronto there’s a fantastic library system, and it’s extremely easy to get hold of books. Canadian culture in general is quite literary and people take pride in the quality of their reading. Much of the national identity is tied up with writers who have explored what it really means to be Canadian. That came through to me when I was a juror for the Commonwealth Prize (Canada and the Caribbean). Other qualities were noticeable too, not for any particular literary skill that the Canadians have, but more because of the rigors of the publishing industry
PP Let’s explore that “rigors of the publishing industry”.
BdC In Canada, manuscripts are heavily vetted and carefully thought through, mainly because the publishing industry there is very competitive. By contrast, the Caribbean books tended to be from foreign publishers and that meant that they were often chosen according to what would sell in England, or some other foreign market. This made them immediately more remote from the experience they set out to describe. Only a handful of books really spoke to the contemporary Caribbean. The Canadian books were free of these constraints and felt far more confident in playing with forms, styles and registers etc. And because Canada, certainly Toronto, has reinvented itself around multicultural ideals, there were writers from all backgrounds.
PP Any Guyanese-Canadians?
BdC Off the top of my head – Tessa McWatt, who I think is related to Mark McWatt.
PP “This Body”, the last book I read by her, was an impressive piece of writing…
BdC And there is Shani Mootoo from Trinidad. And, of course, there is Austin Clarke.
There are many others, but functionally they are Canadian writers who have lived there and have been published there. Even though they might be writing about the Caribbean experience/realities, they are publishing within the context of the Canadian reading public…
PP … and of ‘rigorous editing’
BdC Yes, which is not to detract from the literary skill involved, that is not what I’m suggesting, but the voice … I’m trying to think of a West Indian equivalent … someone like Sam Selvon who was thoroughly Trinidadian and managed to write and publish from within his reality. A better example might be Earl Lovelace who has never left Trinidad and has been successfully published all these years. He’s just won that big prize…
PP …for “Is Jus’ A Movie”…
BdC … a terrific writer, there very few like him left.
PP You work at PEN Canada?
BdC Yes, the Canadian Centre of PEN International – a writers organisation that was founded in 1921. It’s a sort of proto-NGO set up by a small group of highbrow Bloomsbury authors. Over the years, its mission has expanded to foster solidarity among writers, particularly in countries where they can get into trouble…
PP Get into trouble with whom?
BdC With governments; in places where they get locked up etc. Fifty years ago, they formed the Writers in Prison Committee (WIPC) and that takes up the cases of hundreds of writers around the world.
PP Any particular country it focuses on?
BdC Originally, it was for writers of novels and plays that fell afoul of the Soviet Union. But has changed considerably over the years.
PP Because of PEN?
BdC No, because the Cold War ended and the nature of writing has changed. The people who face most of the threats now are journalists and bloggers. Which raises an interesting question, because the public’s attention has moved away from fiction and drama and into politics, journalism…current affairs.
PP What other roles does this group play?
BdC PEN promotes literature, and is also interested in linguistic rights, which is an increasingly sensitive subject in places like the European Union, preserving minority languages, which is something extremely relevant to a country like Guyana. Most people who live on the coast know nothing about the Amerindian languages, and certainly have not paid the proper respect to them. A shocking situation in a society that is notionally multicultural.
PP Over the years there was some work done on the Macushi language
BdC But how many of us know anything about those languages?
PP Is this marginalisation the sort of thing holding back writers and the literature of these peoples/nations?
BdC Quite possibly. If you can’t communicate in your own language, you are at the mercy of translators and the whims of the reading public. It is not that they are not performing within a system – there is no system. It matters not if you have a Tolstoy in the Rupununi, if he can’t write in Standard English or be published by an English press, he will never be noticed.
PP That is a grave concern for a nation.
BdC It should be.
PP And we should do something about it.
BdC In Canada they are waking up to this reality quite late.
PP How should we go about opening up ourselves to the hidden voices in our society? (TO BE CONTINUED)
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com
What’s happening:
• The Guyana Annual 2012-2013 magazine is now available at Guyenterprise Ltd, at Austin’s bookstore and from the editor at the above contacts. This issue of the magazine is dedicated to E. R. Braithwaite. The magazine also features articles on copyright, law of intellectual property, creative industries, oral traditions of Guyana, the future of West Indian cricket and the future of books.
• Coming soon: “An Introduction to Guyanese Literature” by Petamber Persaud. This 150-page-book is a rich collection of Guyanese pride and joy, containing more than 100 photographs.
