The NGC Bocas Lit Fest, based in Trinidad and Tobago, is an annual celebration of books, writing, and writers. The inaugural festival in April 2011 brought together writers, readers, performers, and publishers for four intense days of readings, discussions, workshops, music, and the award ceremony for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, a major new award for Caribbean writers of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. The second annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest is scheduled for 26 to 29 April, 2012. Stay tuned for more information on the programme of events!

Boca is the Spanish word for mouth — the organ of speech and song and storytelling. And the Bocas del Dragón — the Dragon’s Mouths — are the narrow straits off Trinidad’s northwest peninsula, which connect the sheltered Gulf of Paria to the open Caribbean Sea. For centuries, the Bocas were the gateways connecting Trinidad to the Caribbean and the Atlantic. The NGC Bocas Lit Fest invites readers from around the world to enter through the Dragon’s Mouths and celebrate with us the rich literary heritage of Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.