Harischandra Khemraj (born 1944) is a writer from

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. He was born and grew up on a sugar estate in West Bank Demerara, where his parents were both sugar workers in the 1940s. He attended school in Guyana and Howard University in the United States. Upon his return to Guyana in the mid 70's, he worked as a payroll clerk, civil servant, bank statistician, a short order cook, a librarian, a telephone operator and a teacher in West Coast Demerara. During the 1980s he catered to the desire of the villagers of

Uitvlugt Uitvlugt (pronounced "owt-flut") is a village in the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region of Guyana. On the coastal public road on the west bank of the Demerara River, it lies immediately to the west of Stewartville and to the south of Zeeburg ...

and nearby communities to read by running a paperback library at a time when books were almost impossible to obtain in Guyana. He wrote for some years but submitted nothing until completing the manuscript of ''Cosmic Dance'', passed on by Heinemann Caribbean to Peepal Tree Press on the grounds that it was too adult for their list. Peepal Tree published it in 1994. ''Cosmic Dance'' won the 1994

Guyana Prize for Literature Guyanese literature covers works including novels, poetry, plays and others written by people born or strongly-affiliated with Guyana. Formerly British Guiana, British language and style has an enduring impact on the writings from Guyana, which ar ...

. Haris Khemraj has three adult daughters whom all attended universities in the United States. He currently lives in the US with wife and family.

References

External links

The Missionary by Harischandra Khemraj
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Kyk-Over-Al Fort Kyk-Over-Al was a Dutch fort in the colony of Essequibo, in what is now Guyana. It was constructed in 1616 at the intersection of the Essequibo, Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers. It once served as the centre for the Dutch administration of the cou ...

'' via University of Florida Digital Collections 1944 births Guyanese writers Guyanese emigrants to the United States Howard University alumni Living people {{Guyana-writer-stub