Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlisting solidifies Cosmata Lindie’s faith in her writing
Cosmata Lindie was preparing to travel to a joint art exhibition for Guyanese and Surinamese artists. She had been checking her email steadily for any new updates about the trip, when she saw the message in her inbox. She said it was surreal and she could not believe it.
“Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! I made the shortlist!” she recalled exclaiming. She was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, for her entry, “Where the Winds Blow” and is the first Guyanese to be shortlisted since Kevin Garbaran’s, “The Ol’ Higue on Market Street,” in 2019.
She recalled that she had double-checked the authenticity of the email; thinking someone had played a prank on her. No one had. She was shortlisted for the prize, which received over 6,000 entries from around the world. Once she realised the news was no hoax, Lindie called her son and then her mother to tell them the good news.
She then kept it private until the Commonwealth Creative Foundation revealed the shortlist at which time, her euphoria and disbelief that she was shortlisted for such a competitive prize began again. She reminded herself that it is true.
Lindie has loved books since she was a child. “I have always been a reader. I actually started reading fluently before I was five. I was reading novels by the time I was seven or eight. So, I have always surrounded myself with books and the desire to write is something that comes naturally when you read a lot,” she said. This love of the written word hindered her socialisation at family get-togethers and some family members began to hide their books because they wanted to interact with Lindie. But her mind wanted to travel the world. It was an adventure for her imagination because physically she could not visit those places. “All my journeys, all my adventures were through books,” she said.
She consumed fairy tales and adventure stories from western writers. These books inspired her imagination and took her to worlds she did not know.
Lindie also took a liking to National Geographic magazines. It was a natural fit for her. She grew up on the Berbice River; the closest village to her home was Kwakwani. The experience of being so close to nature has had a profound effect on her writing.
“[Nature] is something I know very well. I can identify with it. Nature is not something to be feared. So many people are afraid of the jungle and there are dangers there… but it is a very beautiful place. It is a place that is different, but it’s not hostile. It has its own life, its own energy. It has its own vibes going on there and so when I write I try to convey that in my writing,” she said.
Lindie’s shortlisted story, “Where the Winds Blow,”is an imaginary tale about storms and focuses on Iscar, firstborn son of the royal house of the Caribbean Hurricanes, rulers of the tropical storms. But Iscar was not born to be a hurricane and he learns to navigate the storms of life while finding his own place and purpose in the world. She was inspired by the might and awe a storm can bring to a place. “There is something about the power of storms, something primaeval... We can do so much in this world, but when those elements of nature decide to show us who is in charge, we are so totally helpless,” she said.
Lindie began writing just over 10 years ago and submitted to the organisation on several occasions. Her focus was never on being shortlisted, she said: “I just wanted to be part of a global writing community… It is the idea of a writing community that attracted me.”
Lindie said she was able to evolve her writing after meeting and interacting with the Guyanese writing community. In 2020, the Commonwealth Creative Foundation did a short fiction workshop at the University of Guyana -Tain Campus in Berbice. The workshop introduced her to more regional and local writers.
Even though her work was already focused on speculative fiction about her Guyanese landscape, she felt that the workshop helped to refine her writing and created a stronger identity. There were also supportive writers from the workshop who reassured Lindie that her writing was good enough. “The imposter-syndrome was so strong. It is only now that I feel comfortable calling myself a writer. It always rises up and I ask myself if I am really good at this? Should I be doing this?” Lindie said.
Despite the doubts, she wrote. Fellow writers like Nikita Blair, Daryll Goodchild, Gabrielle Mohamed and Jaryll Bryan offered words of support that instilled confidence when she was lacking. Connecting with other writers has also strengthened her craft. Lindie has had mentorship from renowned Barbadian speculative fiction writer, Karen Lord, who has helped her to craft better stories and see her writing through the eyes of a reader.
“When you write the story, you think it is great because you did it, but you have to take yourself out of that and see it from the perspective of someone who has no idea who you are but is judging you based on your story,” Lindie said. “No matter how much you might love the story you write, you have to be prepared to do serious surgery on it. Don’t be afraid of cutting out the parts that you might think you like best. Sometimes those are the pieces that need to go. And I did this a lot with this story.”
She reads her stories dozens of times until she gets tired of editing. The process allows her to add and subtract details that make the story better for her readers. When she is finished with her first draft, she leaves it for months and in the case of “Where the Winds Blow” she revisited it after one year. Lindie hopes that her readers get excited when they read her writing and also connect to the symbolism and subtext crafted in her words. Given the fact that she was shortlisted, it is safe to say that she has accomplished her goal. You can check out Lindie’s published work at
https://www.stabroeknews.com/2019/08/18/sunday/th e-birds/ and
https://www.stabroeknews.com/2020/01/19/sunday/cr ossroads-2/