Kyk-Over-Al (magazine)
| Categories | Guyanese literature |
|---|---|
| Founder | British Guiana Writers' Association (BGWA) British Guiana Union of Cultural Clubs (BGUCC) |
| Year founded | 1945 |
| First issue | December 1945 |
| Country | Guyana |
| Language | English |
Kyk-Over-Al (sometimes written as Kykoveral and often informally abbreviated to Kyk) is a literary magazine published in Guyana (formerly British Guiana), and is one of the three pioneering literary magazines founded in the 1940s that helped define postwar West Indian literature (the other two were Bim, published in Barbados and still in existence today under the editorship of Esther Phillips, and Focus, published in Jamaica). Kyk-Over-Al is indelibly associated with the Guyanese poet and editor A. J. Seymour, the magazine's longtime editor. After Seymour's death in 1989 the editorship was assumed by poet and novelist Ian McDonald. Kyk was "a forerunner in its efforts to stimulate a Caribbean theory and practice of literary criticism, addressing such issues alanguage and the use of vernacular, audience, the influence of metropolitan culture and the role of historical awareness in establishing a shared 'West Indian' identity." The magazine was initially published between 1945 and 1961, ceasing publication shortly before the West Indies Federation broke up, and was revived in 1984.
Kyk-Over-Al was founded in 1945 by the British Guiana Writers' Association (BGWA) and the British Guiana Union of Cultural Clubs (BGUCC), to "be an instrument to help forge a Guianese people, and to make them conscious of their intellectual and spiritual possibilities". The first issue, priced at one shilling, appeared in December 1945, and was edited by A. J. Seymour, who at that time was an executive member of the BGWA and honorary secretary of the BGUCC.
The magazine was named for Kyk-Over-Al ("see over all"), the ruined Dutch fort on a small island near the confluence of the Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni Rivers in the Guyanese interior. As Seymour explained in his editorial notes, "although ruined, Kykoveral still stands to remind us of our Amerindian and Dutch heritage.... As a title for a periodical, Kykoveral calls for a quick and wide vigilance and the expression of an alert people."
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