Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Congratulations Berkley!

I got a recent email from my writer/publisher friend, GA, in California telling me about an award given to a mutual friend and former classmate of ours, Berkley Semple, for his first book of poetry, Lamplight Teller. Berkley's book just happened to be published through GA's company, WD Publishers, which makes the award doubly exciting. I just received a copy of it, and although some of the meaning was lost on me due to the strong references to his home country, Guyana, it's still a good read. Berkley is truly a gifted poet.

GA emailed me an actual copy of the award letter sent to Berkley confirming his receipt of the 2004 Guyana Prize for Literature. This very prestigious award is presented annually by the University of Guyana in various categories, and Berkley's book was declared the Best First Book of Poetry for 2004. He was flown down by the University to accept his award this past Monday, May 23, by His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana.

Success is a beautiful thing. Congratulations again to Berkley, and to all the other writer/poets out there, keep on doing what your doing.

FYI: The WD Publisher's site is currently under reconstruction. When it's up and running again, I'll add a link to it in the sidebar. If you're interested in purchasing Lamplight Teller, it can be ordered directly from this address:

WD Publishers
P.O. Box 453
San Gabriel, CA 91778

or you can email them at gescomm@aol.com for more information.

1 comment:

Erin said...

Oh I don't know who this fellow is, but I'm always so happy to hear when a fellow poet is successful! Congratulate him, please, from me, though he's sure to think I'm some lunatic from god-knows-where!

PS: How much does the book cost? We can't order if we don't know how much to make the check out for!