Telford, McDonald among Guyana Prize for Literature winners

The Guyana Prize for Literature award ceremony ended on a resounding note at the Pegasus Hotel on Sunday evening, with award-winning Guyanese authors Ruel Johnson and Ian McDonald, as well as Cassia Alphonso, Mosa Mathifa Telford and Chaitram Singh copping the top prizes in their respective categories.
Surrounded by distinguished men and women, including President Donald Ramotar, University of Guyana Vice Chancellor Dr Jacob Opadeyi and Guyana Prize for Literature Management Committee General Secretary Al Creighton, the chairperson of jury, Professor Jane Bryce, who has a strong background in African Literature dating back to 1992, announced the winners.
Jury report
Professor Bryce said major emphasis was placed on quality as the panel of judges read the various entries in the areas of fiction, poetry and drama as she declared Johnson the winner for the Best Book of Fiction with his work Ruel Johnson’s Collected Fiction over his competitor Chaitram Singh, with his piece The February 23rd Coup .
“This collection of short fiction displays a variety of techniques and approaches, some of which were better than others… the collection treats familiar themes such as racial and political tensions, relationships and displacement and the effects of emigration,” Professor Bryce said as she painted a picture of Johnson’s work.
Capitalising on interiority
The award-winning author was praised for capitalising on interiority, point of view and linguistic register.
According to Professor Bryce, The Last Assassin is among leading stories that stand out in his collection.
Johnson first won the Guyana Prize for Literature for Best First Fiction in 2002. He was 22 at the time, the youngest person ever to win the prize.
Meanwhile, in the Best Book of Poetry category, newcomer Alphonso’s Black Cake Mix and McDonald’s The Comfort of All Things shared the winning prize, leaving Sasenarine Persaud’s Lantana Strangling Ixora out in the cold.
According to the lead judge, Alphonso’s poetic range included dramatic monologue, dialogue and first person narrative, simultaneously depicting a distinctive voice and vision.
“Using words carefully to create rhythm and flow and with a sharp eye for social history, she is concerned about the relationship between language, representation and power,” Professor Bryce said while describing Alphonso’s Collection of Evocative Poems. McDonalds work focuses on aging and mortality.
Best Drama
Mosa Mathifa Telford’s Sauda emerged winner over Harold Bascom’s Deportee, in the Best Drama category.
Bascom’s Deportee , a screenplay for a crime thriller set in New York and Georgetown, involving deportation, narco-trafficking and corruption, did not capitalise on the opportunity to “mix up the genre”, said Professor Bryce.
“Rather than using film to say something new and interesting about Guyana, the script opt for the translation of Guyana, into an American crime drama framework,” the head judge said as she outlined its shortfalls.
On the other hand, Telford’s Sauda tells the story of rejection, which forced a teenage girl into prostitution, after feeling neglected by her mother.
“The drama is strong, dialogue, characterisation, pace and timing all work, and the way buried secrets are revealed in the course of the action, adds suspense,” Professor Bryce said as she gave the audience a sneak peek into Telford’s work of art.
In the First Book of Fiction category, Singh received the winning prize.
His book, the Flour Convoy reflected on political tensions that gripped Guyana in 1980s. Singh expressed gratitude to the jury of distinguished judges, the Guyana Prize for Literature Management Committee and the government of Guyana for their significant role in making the award ceremony for the 2013 Guyana Prize for Literature a major success.
The awardees were given the opportunity to read short excerpts of their work.
President Ramotar renewed the government’s commitment to the development of literature in the country.