The winners will be selected from among the works named in each of the categories and are to be announced at the Prize Awards Ceremony to be held in January 2003, on a date to be named.

Fred’ D’Aguiar’s `Bloodlines’, Michael Gilkes’ `Joanstown’ and Sesenarine Persaud’s `The Hungry Sailor’ are shortlisted in the Best Book of Poetry category, while Stanley Greaves’ `Horizons’ and Ruel Johnson’s `The Enormous Night’ are in the Best First Book of Poetry category.

`Bloodlines’ is described as “ambitious in its portrayal of the brutality of slave society, and poignant in its commitment to retrieving humane values.”

Gilkes’ Joanstown was hailed as a “most accomplished collection. A lyric sensibility of a logical order.”

And `The Hungry Sailor’ by Persaud was given kudos as an “admirable variety of subject matter and interesting poetic treatment of diasporic experience.” Greaves, author of `Horizons’, was described as a “powerful metaphoric poet, deeply rooted in a painterly imagination”.

Johnson’s collection `The Enormous Night’ is a “collection that shows great promise and real engagement with the craft of poetry”.

`Weblines’ by John Agard won the prize for Best Book of Poetry in 2000, while Maggie Harris’ `Limbolands’ won in the Best First Book of Poetry section in 2000.

`Going Home & Other Tales’ by Deryck Bernard, `The Timeherian’ by Andrew Jefferson-Miles and `Ariadne & Other Stories’ are in contention for the Best First Book of Fiction prize.

Bernard’s book is a “well-constructed collection which deals engagingly with childhood in colonial Guyana,” the release stated.

`The Timeherian’ was described as “an ambitious and challengingly experimental novel.”

Johnson’s book was considered “an impressive first collection in which the author is seriously engaged in exploring the potential of the short story”.

The Best First Book of Fiction was awarded in 2000 to `Sweet like Salt Water’ by Raywat Deonandan.

No works have been shortlisted in the Best Book of Fiction and Drama categories. However, several in the former category stood out. They are Arnold Itwaru’s `Home and Back’, Churaumani Bissundyal’s `The Game of Kassaku’ and Cyril Dabydeen’s `My Brahmin Days’.

According to the organisers, in light of the very high standards associated with the Guyana Prize, the judges felt that no entry stood out with sufficient distinction for a prize to be awarded.

“It was felt that the best among these had significant flaws despite their powerful evocation of the writers’ concerns and their sometimes detailed and moving descriptions,” a release on the Guyana Prize said.

In 2000, David Dabydeen’s `A Harlot’s Progress’ won the Best Book of Fiction.