When it was announced that won the 16th edition of the Frank Collymore Literary Endowments, my first thought was if this is a programme to encourage upcoming talent for Barbadian Literature then why have you allowed Sir Garry Sobers to bat on the same field as amateurs?

Are you discouraging them – while some see it as an aspiration to do better, let’s bear in mind the reason the Olympics are very clear about who can play is to keep the field level for amateurs. When Simon Cowell’s musical X-Factor contest discovered a lady in her 50’s was a B-list entertainer in the disco era, she was removed forthwith for the same reason the Olympics kept the tournament – for amateurs only.

In Barbados Today, George Alleyne made a vivid analysis comparing the stinging reproach of Antonio”Boo” Rudder’s assessment of the 15th edition as opposed to the seeming molly-coddling for this year’s version {CLICK ON AUDIO FOR FULL STATEMENT};-

What happened between last year and this year? Nevertheless, Mr Rudder did see the importance of Web Advertising and even mentioned BajanReporter.com {CLICK ON AUDIO FOR FULL STATEMENT};-

has claimed the victory is good for writers, but would people aspire for the Pulitzer Prize or the Nobel in Literature if they still faced the possibility of going toe to toe against Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott or TS Eliot? I doubt it!

Since this is not even Kamau’s first victory but his second in less than a decade makes it more unfair in my view and laziness on the part of judges, perhaps these very judges need changing? Maybe from other islands? While some of the present stock are Caricom nationals, they have lived in Barbados long enough to assume our culture via osmosis. What if previous winners were made judges? There are enough 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners from over 15 years to play with… A mix of previous victors and the rest of Caricom?

Familiarity does breed contempt, when I heard the entries that placed and compared it with Kamau’s work which goes more by sight as to how he spells and places words, then I had to wonder why the 2nd and 3rd place winners were belittled since they seemed victorious in their own right as Kamau is an acquired taste?

For instance, ‘ extract from The Memoir seemed like a Bajan version of Philip Marlowe from the perpetrator’s perspective {CLICK ON AUDIO FOR FULL STATEMENT};-

While the true victor was the very young and powerful in a disturbing rendition of a car accident as part of a collection he submitted {CLICK ON AUDIO FOR FULL STATEMENT};-

It seems to me the only genuine place for an expert is the keynote address, which should be given to a person who has accomplished in the publishing world, and now their time is spent sharing their expertise as was down so eloquently by Pauline Melville where she took time to look at both Social and Magic realism in Literature, the videos are incuded here for readers to learn and hopefully emulate?