-aims to publish another book of essays, lauds development of Guyana Prize for Literature
Celebrated Guyanese writer and international award winner, Professor Emeritus David Dabydeen, a nominee for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature, is aiming to publish another book of essays on Caribbean literature in November.
Titled Meeting James Baldwin and Other Writings, Dabydeen completed the book a day before travelling to Guyana to participate in the four-day Guyana Prize Literary Festival, which began on August 6. Baldwin was an American writer and civil rights activist.
“I met James Baldwin, the great African-American writer, in 1985. He gave me a prize for my writings, and he invited me to meet with him in France, where he was living at the time. It was a memorable meeting. Thereafter, I met some of his friends, like Maya Angelou. I really admired him. I was inspired by him,” Dabydeen said.
Dabydeen spoke with Kiskadee Watch after conducting an interactive session on writing tips with an enthusiastic group comprising mainly schoolchildren at the Literary Festival at Castellani House on Thursday.
Baldwin was among several writers whom Dabydeen interviewed during his career.
During his 35-year tenure as a lecturer and professor at the University of Warwick, which has a well-known writing programme, Dabydeen interviewed four winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature who read and spoke about their work at the university.
They included Trinidadian V. S. Naipaul, the 2001 laureate; St Lucian Derek Walcott, the 1992 laureate; Nigerian Wole Soyinka, the 1986 laureate; and exiled Chinese writer Gao Xingjian, the 2000 laureate.
“They granted me interviews, and I am publishing all of that in Meeting James Baldwin and Other Writings,” Dabydeen said.
African and Indian indentureship
Now back at his alma mater, the University of Cambridge, as a fellow, Dabydeen said: “I am creating fellowships and, hopefully, a permanent position in indentureship studies at the university. By indentureship, I don’t mean only Indian indentureship, but African indentureship as well. Very few people know that more than 11,000—and closer to 12,000—Africans were indentured on plantations in Guyana during the 19th century, and they worked side by side with Indian indentured labourers.”
He added: “We have that scholarship. It is available in England. It gives a historical basis and justification for One Guyana because we worked together in the cane fields and we also travelled on the same boat. In fact, in the 1860s, when the boat picked up indentured Africans from Sierra Leone, it stopped in India and picked up indentured Indians.”
Twelve volumes pertaining to African indentured labourers in Guyana are accessible at the National Archives in England.
Commenting on his nomination for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Dabydeen, who was nominated by two Chinese academics and half a dozen European universities, said he was “sincerely happy” about the nomination because of his Guyanese heritage.
“My God, we have a long tradition of literature, from Egbert Martin and Edgar Mittelholzer, and all in between, to Wilson Harris. I published a book on Egbert Martin. Wilson Harris was my mentor and my supporter in England. I am just happy I come from a small country. I could not be a writer without Guyana. Everything I wrote is about Guyana.”
Egbert Martin, who wrote under the pen name “Leo” in the 19th century, is considered Guyana’s first major poet. Wilson Harris, of more contemporary times, was a poet, novelist and essayist, as well as a two-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature.
Dabydeen is the author of three books of poetry, eight novels and half a dozen academic books. “Some are really boring,” he joked.
Literary festival
Dabydeen, himself a five-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature and now a member of its judging panel, was full of praise for the evolution of the event.
He won the five prizes for his novels The Intended (1991), A Harlot’s Progress (1999), Our Lady of Demerara (2004), Molly and the Muslim Stick (2008) and Johnson’s Dictionary (2013).
His prolific body of work includes three poetry collections. His first, Slave Song (1984), won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the Quiller-Couch Prize. He has also produced several academic works.
Last year, he judged the non-fiction category, while this year he was a judge in the under-18 short story and poetry categories.
“I must say that the creation of prizes for young people, for the first time, is something to be celebrated. Whoever came up with the idea of giving prizes to young people is terrific.”
Departing from his comments on this year’s submissions from young people, Dabydeen recalled that, many years ago, Al Creighton of the University of Guyana had asked him to conduct a workshop for young student dramatists.
“I was taken in by their passion, dedication and resolve to become dramatists. Their enthusiasm was something new to me because I had left Guyana when I was young,” he said.
This time around, he said: “I nearly fell to the ground when I read one poem submitted in the youth category. There were at least three poems there that I thought I could have written—not when I was 16 years old, but now. The writing was so talented and thoughtful. The poems were so good that I fed them through AI to make sure they were written by human beings and were not plagiarised.”
About four or five of the short stories were imaginative, vivid and creative, he said.
“To me, it was apparent, judging young people for the first time, that there is talent. The question is: How does one support it?”
Noting that plans are in place for more writing workshops and for the Guyana Literary Festival to be held annually, Dabydeen said there was a need to provide a structure through which people could feel that writers have a place in society and that writing is a valued profession.
“They don’t have to be full-time writers. They could be writers and engineers, or writers and teachers, et cetera. I could never make a living from writing. I have been teaching all my life, even while writing. Very few people can earn a living from writing full-time.”
It is a privilege to be part of the writing community, he said.
“I was lucky, through writing and writing and writing, to have been nominated for the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature. To be nominated, for me, is good enough.”
Guyana Prize
Speaking about the Guyana Prize for Literature, Dabydeen said: “It is unique. It has expanded from one day to two days, to three days, and now it is four days. It has become an international festival. It has scholars and writers from England, North America and the Caribbean now taking part in it. In the past, it was just the awarding of prizes—a one-off local occasion. There were no workshops or book launches. There were no Edgar Mittelholzer or Martin Carter lectures. Children were not present and taking part in workshops. Now I see 60 children before me, and the children are the future.”
Of the two-hour session he held with the children on Thursday, Dabydeen said he tried to speak in language they could understand.
“I didn’t use big or complicated words. I advised them to learn two new words every day or every two days. Secondly, I said that if you are using a word, try to use another word that means the same thing but has a different kind of flavour, or use words that are more surprising and unusual. I advised them to read for half an hour every day. Just read for enjoyment. I have been to many houses where there are no books,” he said.
It was evident from the children’s faces that the story of Brer Anancy, or Anansi, held their attention.
“The Anansi stories that came from Africa are all about survival. He survives anything. If a tiger wants to bite him, he will talk his way out of it. That is part of the survival of people from Africa who were enslaved and brought across the Atlantic Ocean.
“Anansi stories are not just stories. They are about survival and history. They are about you and me. This folklore belonged to our foreparents,” he said.
To begin writing a story, he advised the children to write one line every day about someone or something, after which a second line and then a third would come to mind.
“Then a character could walk into the story, then another, and yet another. They might fight each other and, in the end, get married. You have a story,” he said.
Dabydeen also rewarded some of the children for their creativity and participation with prizes, including cash for ice cream. Eight children took the microphone and recited poems they had written or composed on the spot. With the exception of one, all were primary school pupils.
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