What?

An annual literary festival with Caribbean focus and international scope, bringing together writers, readers, performers, and publishers for a four-day celebration of books and writing.

When?

The 2012 NGC Bocas Lit Fest will run from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 April, with four full days of readings, performances, workshops, and discussions. Plus events for children every weekend during the preceding month.

Where?

Trinidad and Tobago, at the southern end of the Caribbean.

Main venues: National Library and Old Fire Station, downtown Port of Spain

Children’s events: 2012 venues to be announced

Why?

• to celebrate the Caribbean’s literary achievements in a festive atmosphere
  
• to broaden our cultural capital into an area in which we have already excelled, and to which many aspire
  
• to foster interest in reading and writing 
  
• to help demystify books and improve literacy
  
• to help sustain the book industry, which supports this
  
• to expand our idea of literature by including performance poetry and rapso 
  
• to exploit and enhance our presence on the world stage
  
• to launch an annual prize for literature
  

Who?

The NGC Bocas Lit fest’s organising team includes:

Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director, is the former executive director of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. She has also worked in publishing and broadcasting in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

Nicholas Laughlin is the editor of The Caribbean Review of Books, a director of the contemporary art space Alice Yard, and a writer with a particular interest in Caribbean literature and art.

Marjorie Thorpe is a former professor of literature at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, and a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize judge. She is vice-chair of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Funso Aiyejina is dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, and a director of the Cropper Foundation writers’ workshop. He is also a prize-winning fiction author.

Danielle Delon is Director of the KFC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest. She is the editor of The Letters of Margaret Mann, is a former magazine editor, and is a publisher whose current projects include a new book about Trinidad and Tobago food.

Joan Dayal is a bookseller and proprietor of Paper Based, an independent bookshop in Port of Spain.

Lucita Esau runs her own design business.

Patrice Matthews is a marketing and business professional with over a decade’s experience in the local film, telecommunications, and media industries.

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is a registered non-profit company incorporated in Trinidad and Tobago. Its directors are Marina Salandy-Brown, Deanna Greenidge, Funso Aiyejina, Ken Attale, Val Kempadoo, and Andrea Goddard.