Biography on david dabydeen guyanese

1956—

Poet, novelist, and critic

Award-winning poet, novelist, and critic David Dabydeen writes about his native Guyana and the experiences of colonialism and migration.

Biography on david dabydeen guyanese

He makes particular use of Guyanese Creole, a dialect that blends African, French, Spanish, and Indian languages with English and contributes a great deal to the rhythms, rhymes, and emotional power of his work. The language itself is revealed as an area of dispute between colonial power and individuals themselves.

Dabydeen was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1984 for his book Slave Song. His novels have attracted critical acclaim and his critical works, many of which explore the status of black writers and their work in the English literary tradition, have also been influential; he claims Shakespeare's famous colonial play The Tempest as among his major influences.

He is a professor at the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick, England.

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