Two University of Guyana staff members have shared third place in the poetry category of the 2025 Guyana Prize for Literature for collections exploring Chinese indentureship, rural life, family and identity.
Scott Ting-A-Kee, a lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Humanities, was recognised for The Way Indentured, while Makeda Braithwaite, an editorial production officer at the University of Guyana Press, received the award for Mud Psalms.
According to a release from UG, Ting-A-Kee’s collection explores Chinese-Guyanese history and the experiences of Chinese indentured labourers in British Guiana and the wider Caribbean.
The collection is divided into three sections—The Way, The Indentured and The Cat’s Eyes—and draws on sources ranging from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching to historical accounts of Chinese indentureship.
Its second section examines aspects of Chinese-Guyanese history, including the life of O Tye Kim and the practice of foot-binding. The final section presents the journey of Chinese indentured labourers from the perspective of a cat aboard one of the ships which transported them.
Ting-A-Kee, who was recently appointed to UG’s International Centre of Excellence for Modern and Indigenous Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, said the collection emerged from his effort to reconnect with his Chinese heritage.
“My writing journey is closely tied to my journey of exploring history; they feed each other,” he said. “It is a journey of mapping the yellow threads within the Golden Arrowhead.”
Ting-A-Kee said his writing was shaped by a sense of difference and rootlessness and by his desire to imagine the experiences of Chinese indentured immigrants.
His earlier studies in West Indian and postcolonial literature at UG also influenced his interest in Chinese-Guyanese history, he said. Research opportunities and attendance at conferences through the university further contributed to his development.
For Braithwaite, the award was her first in the poetry category of the Guyana Prize. She previously placed third in fiction in the 2022 competition, which was held in 2023.
“It’s a great feeling, as it’s the first time I’ve won in the poetry category,” she said.
Mud Psalms draws on rural Guyana, adulthood, family history and Braithwaite’s cultural identity. UG said the collection was also influenced by her family’s creative traditions and sought to evoke a strong sense of community.
Braithwaite, a former literature student at UG, credited lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Humanities with encouraging her curiosity and helping to shape her literary development.
“My time as a student has greatly influenced my literary journey,” she said, recalling that lecturers were approachable and willing to offer advice outside the classroom.
Braithwaite said universities could help young people pursue creative expression by placing greater emphasis on the humanities and offering programmes which demonstrate the possibilities available in the arts.
“Literature is one of the foundations of a country’s culture. It immortalises its identity and captures the experiences of the common man,” she said. “If Guyanese do not tell our stories, we do not have the right to complain when others do.”
The university said the awards reflected the continuing contribution of its staff to Guyanese literature, scholarship and cultural expression.
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