The Bone Flute* Dead Writers Society

The Embassy of Mexico in Georgetown, Guyana, recently commemorated one of its country’s most revered festivals – the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos, a special time set aside to remember and to pay homage to departed loved ones and to by way of related activities support them on their spiritual journey.
Dia de los Muertos is not unlike many Western traditions and festivals including All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. This year 2018, the festival was devoted to the following eminent writers, Sir Wilson Harris, Sergio Pistol, Sir V. S. Naipaul, Sir Derek Walcott and Octavio Paz, a commendable gesture in a world where we are forever paying lip service to, too soon sideline, or forget altogether our creative minds.
Guyana’s unique physical location on the continent of South America and its historical connection to the Caribbean can lay claim to all of the above writers but more so to Naipaul and Walcott.
Sir Wilson Harris 1921 – 2018:
Born in a small town in a far-away country, Wilson Harris would go on to haunt the imagination of people around the world.
Harris is the recipient of several honorary doctorates, grants and fellowships. He has held the revered position of Writer-in-Residence at many universities around the world including places like Australia, New York, Texas, Toronto and Cuba. In 1987, he won the inaugural Guyana Prize for Literature in the fiction category and, in 2002, he was awarded the Guyana Prize Special Award.
Wilson Harris has written and published some twenty three novels since his first, PALACE OF THE PEACOCK, appeared in 1960. His penultimate novel, THE MASK OF THE BEGGAR (2003), gives a possible starting point that led Harris on the road of his remarkable literary achievement.
When Wilson was only eight, he starting reading, THE ODYSSEY, with the help of his mother, Millicent. The Ulysses of that book became one of the motifs Harris employed in his writing.
Sergio Pistol 1933 – 2018:
Sergio Pistol was a celebrated Mexican writer of memoirs, short stories, and novels. He was also recognized translator who worked on publications by Jane Austen, Henry James and Joseph Conrad and Witold Gombrowicz. A significant contribution to literature was how Pistol experimented with genres, breaking barriers and blending genres with consummate ease. Among his awards was the Cervantes Prize – the most prestigious award for literature in the Spanish-speaking world.
V. S. Naipaul 1932 – 2018:
Naipaul was a Trinidad-born British writer of fiction and nonfiction in English, excelling in both genres producing books like A House for Mr. Biswas, In A Free State, A Bend in the River, The Enigma of Arrival, The Middle Passage, An Area of Darkness, India: A wounded Civilization and Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey. Naipaul won the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Derek Walcott 1930 – 2017:
Walcott was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright better known for his epic poem Omeros and his play Dream on Monkey Mountain. His other notable works include (poetry) In A Green Night, Another Life, the Castaway & Other Poems, and (plays) Ti-Jean and his Brothers, The Joker of Seville, and Pantomime.
Walcott was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1988 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.
Octavio Paz 1914 – 1998:
Paz was a Mexican poet and essayist who was ‘largely responsible for establishing the outlines of contemporary Mexican literary criticism’. He was also a diplomat and translator. Paz founded (or helped to establish) many magazines/journals. He won the Cervantes Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The import of the Day of the Dead was validated by UNESCO which inscribed it in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Somehow, we are slow in acknowledging the worth of our writers and to celebrate them while they are alive. While we battle to overcome whatever challenges constraining us, let’s put aside a day not unlike The Day of the Dead to pay tribute to those who have passed, perhaps even forming The Bone Flute Dead Writers Society to undertake this honourable duty of paying homage to our writers.
*Reference to Wilson Harris.
What’s happening:
Sasenarine Persaud has just released his fourteenth book, Monsoon on the Fingers of God, and was honoured with HAF Award (https://www.hafsite.org/) for the Advancement of Dharmic Arts and Humanities. Part of the citation reads: ‘to recognize your significant yet humble contributions towards enlightening and educating others through your many inspiring literary works of dharmic values and traditions’.
Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com
(Times Sunday Magazine)