By| Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Guyanese published author, literary mentor, and journalist Jasmaine Payne is leading a movement to grow Guyana’s literary community, focusing on preserving human ingenuity and authenticity in storytelling amid the global rise of artificial intelligence.
Drawing from her international education and personal writing journey, Payne is inspiring local writers through structured workshops and mentorship programs designed to nurture genuine human expression.
Reflecting on her own development as a creative writer, Payne shared that mastering the craft was a gradual process. Her studies abroad, particularly at Goldsmiths, University of London, provided vital insight into the formal structure and pedagogy of creative writing.
“When we bring it home, sometimes we may miss some of those themes,” Payne explained. “What I learnt mostly from Goldsmiths was the formal structure of the novel, certain rules, and just the pedagogy of creative writing, which I find priceless now as I move through creating writing myself.”
Payne recognized a significant gap in Guyana’s cultural landscape: local writers frequently operate in isolation. She emphasized the critical need for a centralized creative community to help writers advance.
“The literary community is very quiet. We work in silos, and that’s not always a bad thing,” Payne stated. “But when we raise our heads and look around, we should have a workshop, a writing group, a mentorship group, some sort of fellowship to move further along in our careers.”
This realization motivated Payne to take action. In January of this year, she launched her first initiative—a free poetry workshop facilitated by Berklee Semple, an award-winning Guyanese author, poet, and past Guyana Prize winner, during his visit to the country.
Building on that momentum, Payne partnered with acclaimed Trinidadian novelist Celeste Mohamed to develop a five-week workshop titled “An Introduction to Storycraft”. Financed through a grant from the Caribbean Culture Fund, the virtual workshop selected five promising, unpublished young Guyanese women following a competitive application process.
Addressing the increasingly prevalent role of generative AI in creative spaces, Payne expressed cautious concern regarding shifting reader habits, while remaining resolute in the distinct value of human imagination.
“I am worried about the reader who doesn’t know the difference and begins to lean more towards a particular type of creation rather than ours,” Payne admitted. “But if you really know how to write and you’re really a storyteller, you’ll see that AI-generated work is subpar.”
Beyond creative guidance, Payne leverages her 15 years of professional journalism experience to mentor authors through the pitfalls of self-publishing, protecting inexperienced writers from predatory scams.
Her own novel, Leech, represents a groundbreaking milestone in Guyanese literature as a rare psychological thriller written by a resident female author. The plot follows a Guyanese writer confined to a psychiatric hospital in New York who claims her best-selling novel was written under possession by an 18th-century ghost.
Payne described Leech as a cautionary tale designed to challenge perceptions of mental health. “Sometimes you just need to listen to what people are saying rather than brushing it off with a scientific explanation,” she noted.
The novel has achieved significant critical acclaim, earning a spot on two award shortlists in 2025 and securing second place at the 2026 Bookfest Awards. Through her ongoing work, Payne hopes to build a resilient, authentic network of writers capable of thriving in the digital era without losing the unique essence of human storytelling.
