Guyanese writer, Sir Wilson Harris, Died at 96

  Writer

Sir Theodore Wilson Harris was born on March 24, 1921, and died on March 8, 2018.

He was a Guyanese writer.

Harris started out write poetry but has since become a well-known novelist and essayist.

Harris’s writing style is often said to be abstract and densely metaphorical, and his subject matter wide-ranging.

He was considered one of the most original and innovative voices in postwar literature in English.

Harris’s most recent novels include Jonestown (1996), which tells of the mass-suicide of followers of cult leader Jim Jones, The Dark Jester (2001), his latest semi-autobiographical novel, The Mask of the Beggar (2003), and The Ghost of Memory (2006).

He was also the writer of non-fiction and critical essays and has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities, including the University of the West Indies (1984) and the University of Liège (2001). He has twice won the Guyana Prize for Literature.

He was knighted in June 2010 during the Queen Elizabeth II Birthday Honours.

During 2014, he won a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

He died at 96 years old.