In a lavish ceremony attended by over 500 guests in Georgetown, Guyana, renowned Ottawa poet and writer Cyril Dabydeen was recently awarded the Fiction Prize for his novel Drums of My Flesh.
The prestigious Guyana Prize for Literature was given by President Bharrat Jagdeo, in a ceremony that included such dignitaries as Guyana Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Minister of Culture Dr. Frank Anthony.
The country's literary and intellectual elite were in attendance at the gala ceremony which was hosted by the University of Guyana at the posh Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel. Dabydeen shared the Fiction Prize with Mark McWatt of the University of the West Indies for his novel Suspended Sentences.
In the poetry category, Elly Nyland of the U.K. won for Cornerstones, and Michael Gilkes, also of the U.K., was awarded the prize in the drama category for Last of the Redmen. Rhyaan Shaw of Georgetown won in the First Book of Fiction category for A Silent Life.
This is the first time the Fiction Prize went to a Canadian. The prizes are worth US$5,000 for each Best Book, and US$3,000 for Best First Book.
For two decades, the Guyana Prize for Literature has been bringing together the best of Guyanese writing. The awards are seen as a crowning tribute to successful authors and are customarily handed out by the head of state to signify the best of the nation's literature.
The jury panel included Sandra Paquet, Chair, Professor of English at the University of Miami; Museum Curator, Elfrieda Bissember; Editor of the Arts Journal, Ameena Gafoor; Dr. Ian Robertson of the University of the West Indies; and Dr. Gemma Robinson of the University of Sterling in the U.K.
Dr. Paquet said Dabydeen's book was adjudged to be "masterfully conceptualized in form and content....complex and mysterious in its rendering of experience."
Dabydeen read from Drums of My Flesh in New York City at the Guyana Folk Festival on August 30. A review of the novel appeared in The Epoch Times in March of this year. The novel was nominated for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards in 2006.
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