Guyana’s Resident Ambassador to China, Professor David Dabydeen has rubbished the work of Guyanese writers and poets saying that writing coming out of Guyana with notable exceptions, is “poignantly poor.”

The Ambassador who is an award-winning poet and author in a missive to the Press in response to criticism from local writer Ruel Johnson, said “Guyana at present only has a small handful of consistent writers of quality”. He added that “hence in the 25 years of the Guyana Prize, only one resident Guyanese has ever won the Fiction Prize, and only two the First Book of Fiction”.

Writer Ruel Johnson has been very critical over the way Professor Dabydeen has been managing the Caribbean Press.

The Caribbean Press was set up back in 2008 to facilitate the publishing of works by Guyanese writers. Johnson has said in letters of his own to the Press, that there are competent Guyanese living in Guyana who should be able to manage the press in a professional manner. He has also fired off criticism at Dr. Dabydeen for describing local writers as lazy and incompetent.

Dr. Dabydeen in his Tuesday letter to the Press fired off at Johnson who is a past winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature. He said “Mr Ruel Johnson can bark and snarl as much as he likes, but doggerel, much less ‘puppyrel,’ will not be published by the Caribbean Press. And, sorry to say, most of the poetry sent to me by resident Guyanese writers is doggerel or puppyrel. The Press can set up all the committees it likes and issue grand policy statements, but dross is dross is unpublishable dross”

He noted that the Caribbean Press will not publish lazy and incompetent work.

The Guyanese born, British educated Ambassador and Writer stated too that it has been difficult to get sufficient poetry from Guyanese writers for an upcoming collection of Guyanese poetry. “Most of the submissions that come my way are not writing, but typing”, he said.

Dabydeen said “it was a real struggle getting sufficient poetry for the forthcoming Anthology of Contemporary Guyanese Poetry” from resident Guyanese and in the end “the Press had to go on the basis of promise rather than achievement”.

Dr. David Dabydeen has published several novels and books of poetry and has won many awards for his work.

In 2010, the Government of Guyana appointed him as Guyana’s Ambassador to China. As a Diplomatic representative, he is expected to showcase and represent the country at all levels.

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