-one entry discarded for use of AI
The entries to the Guyana Prize for Literature 2025 in eight categories were exemplary, particularly in the youth poetry category, but the general fiction and nonfiction categories needed more refinements according to the chairmen of the judging panels who cautioned about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in writing as one entry was discarded for its use.
Meanwhile, England-based Tessa Mc Watt took the top prize for the Best Book of Non-Fiction with her submission ‘The Snag’ published by Random House at the Guyana Prize for Literature 2025 Awards Ceremony that took place at the Atlantic Conference Room, Pegasus Hotel Georgetown on August 7, 2025.
Among the awardees, the shortlisted and invitees were Prime Minister Mark Phillips who delivered the main address congratulated the winners and the shortlisted and commended everyone who submitted their work. He thanked the judges for their reports and unbiased assessments.
At the start of the event, a minute of silence was observed for the victims of the MV Barima and a tribute was paid to the late Ian Mc Donald, a multiple winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature in poetry and a supporter of the Guyana Prize by his friend and chairman of the jury of the panel of judges for the fiction category Dr Stewart Brown.
In the submissions for the Best Book of Non-Fiction chairman of the judging panel Professor Edward Greene noted that 19 books were entered in this category of which three were shortlisted.
The second prize was awarded to Joyce Trotman for her biography, ‘Dis gyrl: The enchanted life of Aunty Joyce Trotman.’
The third shortlisted, Vilma Nicholls, was given a Special Recognition of Non-Fiction for ‘Tafawa: Guyana’s Bachelor’s Adventure and Paradise villages: A mosaic of the history and culture of a people liberated.’
The first prize winner of the Youth Awards short story category was Juvell Atherley, ‘Saltwater does not forget’. In second place was Siara Fernandes with her entry ‘Eat you whole’, and in third place was Gabriel West ‘Armonia’.
For Poetry, also in the Youth Awards, two tied for the first place, Mortimer Duke for his composition ‘Notes towards an incomplete definition’ and Ariel Mohanlal for ‘Motion’. Mohanlall submitted two pieces. In third place was Jessica Persaud with ‘Oh sea, swallow my pleas’. An honourable mention was given to Darshanie Tickapersaud, who submitted two entries ‘Ah still deh’ and ‘By the wata dat doan sleep’.
In the Best Book of Fiction category there were 19 submissions but one was taken out of the competition because of the use of AI. According to the chairman of the jury Professor Stewart Brown, most of the entries were disappointing. There was a short list of three. The main controversial issue, he said, was the use of AI.
The winner of the Best Book of Fiction was Raywat Deonandan for his submission ‘A memory of flowers and coconut’.
In second place was Jasmaine Payne for her submission ‘Leech.’ Payne was also the winner of the Best First Book of Fiction also with Leech.
The Best First Book of Poetry was awarded to Phebe Wallerson who was also the runner up for the Best Book of Poetry. Wallerson’s winning entry was Lahcim II: Sounds from Sorrow Hill.’
Maggie Harris took the award for the Best Book of Poetry with her composition ‘I sing to the Greenhearts’.
Joint third place winners in this category were Makeda Braithwaithe for her entry ‘Mud Psalms’ and Scott Ting-A-Kee for his entry ‘The way indentured’.
In the drama category, Seeta Shah Roath took the Best Book of Drama Award with her entry ‘Kisna’. In second place was Shaphan Hestick with ‘River, Blood, Son’ and in third place was Mosa Telford with her entry ‘The bell and the bones’.
In his address Prime Minister Phillips said the value of the awards ceremony extended beyond a single year because at the heart of every story was a message that began before its author penned it and that message will continue to connect people across generations.
“As Caribbean people, we can attest that story telling always carry an additional responsibility. Much of our history was first recorded through the eyes of outsiders, through colonial records, that recorded labour, land and production while the inner lives of our people were often ignored or distorted. Our writers help to correct those records by giving names, motives, humour and dignity to the people who often appear only as subjects in the accounts of others,” he said.
Importantly, he said, Guyanese writers have been central to carrying local stories far and wide. He cited Edgar Mittelholzer as the first professional novelist from the English-speaking Caribbean recording the social tensions and landscapes of British Guiana and taking them to international publishers.
ER Brathwaite, the author of ‘To Sir with love’, he noted transformed his experience in a London classroom to a book that was sold in many countries and which was later adapted to a film.
Beryl Gilroy wrote from her experience as a Guyanese woman and a migrant in London and helped to put Guyana on the literary map.
He singled out Professor David Dabydeen, one of Guyana’s most distinguished novelists and poets, as a nominee for the 2026 Nobel Prize for Literature by placing a body of work connected to Guyanese history, memory, slavery, indentureship and colonialism within one of the world most important literary spaces.
He noted, too, Guyana-born Tessa Mc Watt, also the Guyana Prize winner for non-fiction this year is the winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature with her memoir ‘The snag’.
He recalled the contributions to the literary field in Guyana of the late Dr Ian Mc Donald and the legacy he has left from which new Guyanese and Caribbean writers can learn.
He acknowledged that the Caribbean literary space remains a difficult one due to small markets, division by geography, publishing, printing and distribution.
Bookstores and reviewing platforms are also limited, he said, and writers at home might struggle to find professional editing, mentorship and sustained opportunities.
While writers in the diaspora might gain access to wider markets, he said, they find it difficult to explain what is intended for a Caribbean audience.
“We need stories from the coast to the hinterland and the diaspora. We need work that preserves our languages and customs, that records history and records contemporary changes, and that imagine a future yet to arrive. If we do not tell them with knowledge and confidence, others will tell them incompletely, or they may not be told at all.”
Noting that strong writing does not develop in isolation, he said, Guyana needs more regular writing workshops, reading groups, residencies, school writing clubs, public readings, editorial services, literary journals and partnerships among writers, libraries, publishers and universities and the private sector. “Writers also need to support one and other,” he said.
Noting that the PPP/C Government restored the Guyana Prize, added other categories in the youth awards, introduced the literary festival and moved judging to online, and included an allocation of $3.7 billion in the 2026 budget to the orange economy initiatives, he encouraged writers to invest in themselves as Government continues to invest in them via the literary festival and other initiatives.
“Guyana is changing rapidly and this period will be interpreted for generations by the stories we leave behind. Tell those stories truthfully. Tell them with imagination and skill. Give them more than official dates and public events. Give them private hopes, anxieties, contradictions and humour of the people who lived through this time,” he said.
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