2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature: T&T writers dominate longlist
Writers with roots in five different Caribbean territories have been longlisted for the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media, owner of the Express newspapers, TV6, and the OCM radio network.
The 2021 NGC Bocas Lit Fest which runs from Friday 23 – Sunday 25 April will take place online.
The OCM Bocas prize, now in its eleventh year, is internationally considered the leading literary award for Caribbean writers. The Prize recognises books in three genre categories poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction published by authors of Caribbean birth or citizenship in the preceding year. Of the nine books longlisted for the 2021 Prize, five are by writers born in Trinidad and Tobago, with the other longlisted authors representing Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, and St. Lucia.
“Where else would you find Trinidadian street food in the same volume as an appraisal of Thom Gunn's poetry, or Dylan Thomas rubbing shoulders with soca?”
Article by Social Share
Port Of Spain – Writers from five Caribbean territories have been long-listed for the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media (OCM).
The OCM Bocas prize, now in its eleventh year, is internationally considered the leading literary award for Caribbean writers.
The Prize recognises books in three genres poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction published by authors of Caribbean birth or citizenship in the preceding year.
Of the nine books long-listed for the 2021 Prize, five are by writers born in Trinidad and Tobago, with the other authors representing Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, and St Lucia.
The Gatekeepers brings book deal for Trini writer Lloyd
Thursday 17 December 2020
Ayanna Gillian Lloyd, left, Uganda-born British poet Nick Makoha and Trinidadian Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné at the 2019 Bocas Lit Fest. -
BEFORE she started writing The Gatekeepers, Trinidad-born, UK-based writer Ayanna Gillian Lloyd spent a lot of time in cemeteries and was always struck, “by the way Lapeyrouse Cemetery (Port of Spain) in particular was a history lesson – a little city within a city, a world of its own.”
She said the idea for her debut novel, The Gatekeepers, grew out of “thinking through the ways that we live with death and how our cultural deathways hold (or hide) important histories.”