AUTHOR and lecturer Dr. Velma Pollard gave good advice to writers on Tuesday. Her message was simple: "Revise, revise, revise."The guest speaker at the Literary Arts Awards ceremony put on by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, Dr. Pollard pleaded with writers who thought they could "knock off a story or poem in five minutes" to consider a first draft a draft.
Good writers, she said, will admit that most of the time it takes hard work to polish their material to the desired quality.
In offering her congratulations, Dr. Pollard said she was not only commending the approximately 30 authors of poetry and stories and the single essayist who received awards. Her congratulations were also for all who entered the literary competition.
She said that writing can, by itself, give "deep satisfaction." And she added, "Perhaps it matters less if we share it (the writing) with others, and if we get a medal. By just writing, we have already got something grand."
Dr. Pollard was speaking to an unusually large audience (for the annual event) in an unusual venue. In an effort to give a higher profile to the competition, which in past years has taken a back seat to many other JCDC events, the Commission this year moved away from the Tom Redcam Library Reading Room to the carpeted wall-draped luxury of the Hilton Kingston's Les Ambassadeurs suite.
Before Dr. Pollard's speech, a number of writers read their prize-winning works. They included the year's only gold medal-award winning authors, Rudolph Wallace and Nadine Tomlinson, who also picked up $5,000 cheques for their winning adult short stories.
Other readers included well-known poets Gwyneth Barber-Wood and M'Bala. The latter, who is less well-known by his given name, Michael Bailey, and who has been winning awards in the competition for more than 20 years, played a thumb piano as he read his poems.
The judges' reports indicated that the quality of the entries was uneven. Nicola Johnson, who read the report on poetry on behalf of fellow judges Mervyn Morris and David Williams, said that in the 400 poems submitted there was "much bad writing". Only eight persons got poetry awards.
However, Jean Small, a short story adjudicator, said that the 68 entries in that category demonstrated that stories for adults "showed improvement over last year." She reminded those writing for children and young people that "merely having a youngster as the main character is not enough. Theme, language and style have to be relevant to the young reader."
Five awards were made in the junior and intermediates (teens) short story categories. Eighteen awards were made in the adult short stories category, the category with the largest number of awards, including the two golds.
The function was chaired by Andrew Brodber, the JCDC's Speech, Drama and Literary Arts co-ordinator, who said that the ages of the competitors ranged from nine to 87. He spoke of a "significant demand" for film scripts and encouraged screenwriters to enter the JCDC Literary competition.
His reference to the economic benefit which could accrue to the country from the writing of good screenplays was an echo of a statement in the function's printed programme. In his message, Arnold Bertram, Minister of Local Government, Youth and Community Development, who has portfolio responsibility for the JCDC, stated:
"The potential of the Festival of Arts to contribute to economic development is manifested in the Cultural Festivals which have a direct appeal to our visitors, the Mento Yard in St. Ann, the Maroon Festival in St. Elizabeth, and the traditional art forms in the Eastern end of the island."
Michael Reckord
