About Us

mattie

(noun | MAH-tee)


1. A close friend; [by extension] another person of the same race, or nation. A. ‘After all we is mattie’ he said ‘we must help mattie, so I goin’ bring you some sugar and flour”.

mattie is a digital-first creative writing project to explore the stories of Guyana’s people. It is being helmed by a loose collective of people who love stories and want to share them.


 
We are: 
 
Nikita Blair is a Guyanese arts journalist and short story writer currently residing in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has a MA in Creative Writing from Edinburgh Napier University, and a degree in Communications Studies from the University of Guyana. Her non-fiction has been featured in the Stabroek News, CARICOM Today, and the Commonwealth Foundation’s blog. Her fiction, published under N.A. Blair has appeared in Strange Horizons Magazine and Clarion West’s The Seventh Week newsletter.
 
Andre Haynes is a writer turned editor who can’t stop hyperfixating on fixing other people’s sentences.
 
Dreylan Johnson is a writer, researcher and cultural advocate. She spent her early career in the newsroom, first as a reporter and then as copy editor, where she developed a love for long-form journalism and capturing the human dimensions of storytelling.
 
Supported by:
 
Kevin Garbaran is a Guyanese writer, filmmaker, and festival programmer. He was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2019, with subsequent longlist recognition in 2020 and 2021, and served as writer-in-residence at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, in 2020. His fiction has appeared in The Guyana Annual and the Stabroek News Writers’ Room, and in 2026 he was selected as a fellow on the Bocas-Jacaranda Short Story Intensive. He wrote and co-directed the short film Old Toy Train (2024), which won the Chief Judge’s Award and Audience Choice Award at the 2025 GATFFEST in Jamaica. He currently serves as a programmer for the Georgetown Film Festival.

Vidyaratha Kissoon lives and works in Guyana. He blogs at https://churchroadman.blogspot.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Call for Submissions

Image
mattie, a new digital-first creative writing project exploring the stories of Guyana’s people, is inviting fiction, non-fiction and poetry submissions centred around the theme of “Community” for its inaugural publication.  As Guyana celebrates 60 years of independence, we believe that this presents an opportunity for Guyanese here and afar to reflect on who we are and who we are becoming amidst the rapid changes taking place around us. Our identity as individuals is shaped by community, and “community” can mean different things for many different people. We want to hear your stories of your communities and how they helped to make you, break you, delight you, annoy you, and every emotion in-between.   Take us through the memories of your small days fishing in the trench with your friends. Tell us about the friendships made on the lessons circuit during your Common Entrance or CXC years. Give we a lil taste of the gossip from the Big Aunty Network when you sit near one of them ...
Read more