Two University of Guyana staff members have shared third place in the poetry category of the 2025 Guyana Prize for Literature.
Scott Ting‑A‑Kee is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the University of Guyana. He was recognised for the collection titled The Way Indentured. The Way Indentured 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. It draws on sources ranging from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching to historical accounts of Chinese indentureship. The 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. Scott Ting‑A‑Kee was recently appointed to UG’s International Centre of Excellence for Modern and Indigenous Languages, Literatures and Linguistics. He said: "My writing journey is closely tied to my journey of exploring history; they feed each other," he said. He said: "It is a journey of mapping the yellow threads within the Golden Arrowhead."
Makeda Braithwaite is an editorial production officer at the University of Guyana Press. She received the award for the collection titled Mud Psalms. 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. She said: "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 is a former literature student at the University of Guyana. She credited lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Humanities with encouraging her curiosity and helping to shape her literary development. She said: "My time as a student has greatly influenced my literary journey," she said. She 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. She said: "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. She said: "If Guyanese do not tell our stories, we do not have the right to complain when others do." she said.
