Controversy will outstrip literary merit any time in a contest for the attraction of public attention to a literary publication. This demonstrates in a very tangible way, the power of literature in the social and political life of a nation, since the public seems to recognize that literature carries an enormous social responsibility, and it demands that literary publications bear that sense of accountability. The written word, even when couched in the devious arts of fiction, drama or poetry, has the power to hurt, heal, influence, build or destroy. Foremost Jamaican poet, Edward Baugh, writes, "there's no such thing as 'only literature'/every line commits you"; and the public is going to bring its weight down on the writer who publishes anything that hurts or is perceived to hurt.

This much was highlighted when the Guyana Christmas Annual 2001 appeared last December and was quickly propelled into public controversy. The Roman two headed god, Janus, after whom the month of January is named, would have looked back at the year gone by and seen the way literature gained some ground in Guyana in 2001, ending with the debates over V S Naipaul. He would also have looked ahead to Guyanese literature in the new year, greeted by another controversy over a short story by Haslyn Parris, notoriously titled 'Coolie Tom Puss' and published in The Guyana Christmas Annual 2001. As it happens, Janus is also the name adopted by the Young Writers Guild which has set itself goals of building creative writing among youths in Guyana, and was tasked with the production of the Annual.

Obviously, this magazine has a very important role in
Guyanese literature. Presently, it is one of only
three outlets for local creative writers to get their
work published in a land where publishing is difficult
and professional editing virtually non-existent.

Kyk Over Al, which last appeared in 2000 and is, frankly, struggling, is the best of them. Yet its issues are not frequent enough to accommodate the increasing traffic of fledgling writers as well as the flow of new work by the more established ones. The other outlet is the series of collections published by Roopnandan Singh and the Association of Guyanese Writers and Artists (AGWA), who also stage public readings. These serve the purpose quite well and offer the best opportunities for developing writers to try out their craft. Their most recent volume, Just A Number, edited by Singh, is devoted to short fiction. The Christmas Annual is 86 years old. It first appeared in 1915 and continued with irregular appearances throughout the century under its original title, The Chronicle Christmas Annual. Very distinguished names such as Vincent Roth and George E Willock have been among its various editors up to the 1950s, after which it was edited by Charles Chichester, Charles De Florimonte and Allan Fenty.

Throughout this history, the magazine was published by different private individuals and by The Chronicle newspaper up to 1992 when it again disappeared for six years. It reappeared in 1998 under its new name with new publishers; then in 2001, it was handed over to Janus. Editor, Ruel Johnson, gives credit to those responsible for the revival and unbroken annual appearance since 1998: "With Guyanese born Dr Tulsi Dyal Singh of Midland, Texas donating a generous cash gift to the production of the magazine and with Mr Vic Insanally providing the use of staff and services of Guyenterprise towards the same end, the Annual has been revived as a simple, yet extraordinary attempt at promoting and preserving the best of Guyana's new literary talent." The credit is certainly well deserved and Janus, a young, inexperienced group, has taken on a sizeable task, which complements the work of the AGWA. But Johnson makes a number of sweeping, very extravagant claims for the Annual. For him, it assembles "the best . . . new talents" with "twelve extremely well written pieces of short fiction" and "the best collection of Guyanese poetry published anywhere for the year 2001." That is a lot for the poems and stories in the collection to live up to. And they don't. Neither has it been the role of this magazine to assemble the best. It has largely been talent seeking and developmental, giving space to many junior and untried writers. That is why it has traditionally published the winners of the Christmas Annual Senior and Junior poetry and short story competitions. This 2001 edition is invaluable for the encouragement and opportunity it gives to a number of young beginners who share the space with a few more senior poets. But guidance to the fledglings is also crucial because it is not an admirable thing to give them misplaced impressions of excellence. A few of the published pieces are still to be shaped into decent poetry. There is the common over use of rhyme and plain description, but Kojo McPherson (in 'Senior secondary,' though not in 'Untitled') and Johnson (in 'Homage') are at least aware of form and attempt to move their craft away from the plain conventions.

Terrence Roberts has a command of descriptive language but not much more to his poems.

But after all that is said, it would be churlish not to compliment some of the younger teenagers, specifically 13 year old Krystal Astwood, for managing this bold step into a demanding field. The fiction is mixed. The works of Rosanna Shamshudin and Janet Jagan will have to be viewed differently since they are simple fables for children and are effective as such. The remaining stories, which are excessively descriptive, are generally in need of editing. Johnson's good command of language suffers nevertheless from a certain wordiness and his narrative could benefit from a bit more brevity for less painstaking plot advancement. Similarly, Camille Bobb Semple's piece is much too lengthy for what it achieves. True to its developmental role, the Annual 2001 was entrusted to Janus and that is a very good way of involving the group in a major project, giving them valuable experience and encouragement. But that comes with a cost, since the magazine exhibits the kinds of problems of proof reading, technical editing and the actual editing of the works themselves that will understandably come from inexperience. The item that is mostly responsible for bringing this volume to public attention, however, is the debate generated by Parris' 'Coolie Tom Puss,' which many readers feel is insensitive, if not insulting and disrespectful, in its use of racial slurs. In the first place, readers are making a very big assumption when they directly interpret any negative view or utterance expressed by the characters in a story as the attitude of the writer. Creative prose fiction has a certain licence not enjoyed by non fiction, documentary, argumentative or other types of prose.

It can use language that a writer of non fiction could never get away with. If a character in a story is foul mouthed, surely in the dialogue, he is going to curse and if he is a racist, he will be given dramatic life by his use of racial slurs. In the story, black and Indian neighbours live amicably together. This does not, however, prevent the black wife of the main character, from harbouring the kinds of prejudices about Hindus and Muslim Indians that she was taught in her youth. It is a very realistic Guyanese situation whether Guyanese like it, approve of it, or not. What is also important in the story is that the author provides a main character who is unencumbered by any awareness of ethnic disharmony and is obviously not in agreement with his wife's feelings. Parris uses the techniques of fiction to suggest to his audience that the wife's race bound logic is frivolous, foolish and laughable. But his main style is humour and, ironically, it is this that gets him into trouble. 'Coolie Tom Puss' is by no means an excellent piece of art and has glaring faults. Its author is guilty of a touch of irresponsibility and some untidiness in his quest to evoke a laugh. The title of the story is justified only by the joke at the very end, and as good fiction writing goes, that is not satisfactory justification.

In the same play for laughs, Parris makes frivolous references to race, to Mr Alli, a Muslim and Mr Persaud, a Hindu. This indiscipline leaves him open to charges of insensitivity because he makes light of people's race and religion. His sin is not racism, but irresponsible craft. 'Coolie Tom Puss' is, therefore, not the outstanding short story in the Annual. That distinction belongs to 'Sowing the Seeds of Wrath' by Harry Narain. I would rate this story and the critical commentary 'Penmen with A Point to Prove' by Mayann Cheong as the prize pieces in the magazine. Narain's narrative, like many others in this collection, is sometimes repetitive and in need of cutting, but the author has a remarkable control of suspense, timing, character building, dialogue and irony. The tale's great strength is in the ending, which is dramatic and touching. Throughout the story, clues are given without betraying that ending, made more effective because of the author's careful attention to detail which leads up to it. Miss Cheong examines the two writers groups, Janus and AGWA in the context of the development of creative writing in Guyana, touching as well, on the Guyana Prize for Literature. It is well written. Her prose is crisp, tidy and interesting and her subject well researched and pertinent. She captures in it, a capsule of the burning issues which occupy the minds of local writers and other interested parties in Guyana. These are the very topics that crowd one's mind when one reads The Guyana Christmas Annual 2001. It is not an exhibition of Guyana's best "new literary talent," but it is a document that the country definitely needs. It is said that those who have never made a mistake are the ones who have never done anything. One cannot hesitate, therefore, to commend Janus for this work. That too, would be churlish.