Skip to content

Bocas South Highlights

Join us for an exciting weekend of events, 8-9 November at SAPA, San Fernando. Click here for more info on the NGC Bocas Lit Fest South 2014

The Bocas Lit Fest Goes South!

Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 November @ The UTT Campus, SAPA, San Fernando. A weekend of celebration and exploration… The 2-day South festival opens at 10:30am on Saturday 8 November with a tribute to the life and work of San Fernando son, Samuel Selvon. To mark the 20th anniversary of his death, popular actors Errol […]

The Courts Bocas Speak Out secondary school tour

The 2 Cents Movement poets as they start the 2014-2015 Courts Bocas Speak Out Secondary Schools Tour. The Tour includes 50 secondary schools nationwide and culminates in March 2015 with Trinidad and Tobago’s only Spoken Word Intercol competition.  

OCM Bocas Prize Winners in the Alps

Robert Antoni, 2014 winner of the OCM BOCAS Prize for Caribbean Literature; 2012 winner, Earl Lovelace; and Kei Miller, 2014 non-fiction winner, were among a group of eight writers invited to showcase Caribbean writing in the Swiss alpine town of Bellinzona last weekend. The annual Babel Festival of Literature and Translation put the spotlight on […]

Crime pays for Barbara Jenkins

The Long Arm of the Lawless, a short story by Barbara Jenkins, has won much praise and a trip to Scotland for its author. The theme of crime writing was introduced during the 2014 NGC Bocas Lit Fest in partnership with Bloody Scotland, Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival, and the British Council. Participants in a […]

2015 OCM Bocas Prize opens for entries

The 2015 OCM Bocas Prize Opens The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature is a major award for literary books by Caribbean writers. Books may be entered in three categories: poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. The prize includes an award of US$10,000, sponsored by One Caribbean Media. This year there will also be cash awards for […]

Free Event: Trading Tales, Thursday 4th September 2014

Trading Tales: a conversation about history and fiction with Jane Harris, Lisa Allen-Agostini, and Michael Cherrie Trading Tales is a residency programme in Scotland and the Caribbean for writers of historical fiction, organised in August and September 2014 by the British Council in partnership with Glasgow’s Mitchell Library. The programme allows two Caribbean writers and […]

Spread the word about free adult literacy classes in T&T

The Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA) – student registration on Tue 2 & Wed 3 September 2014.  Many persons who need ALTA’s free adult literacy classes are still not aware of these. Registration for new students is on Tues 2 and Wed 3 September at public libraries across Trinidad. It could change someone’s life if you […]

The 2015 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize opens for poetry

The region’s only prize that seeks to open doors for budding writers is now open for submissions until 30 September 2014. The 2015 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be awarded to an emerging writer of poetry.  Submissions close on 30th September at 6pm.  The Prize, administered by The Bocas Lit Fest and worth a total […]

Bocas goes to Harlem!

For the third year running, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, T&T’s annual literary festival, will host an event showcasing Caribbean writing talent in New York. Three highly regarded new authors will participate in a reading and discussion titled Coming from Far: Caribbean Writers on Home and Otherness, presented by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest at […]

Trading Tales: A Call for Writers

The British Council announces a writers’ residency programme in both Scotland and the Caribbean this summer for writers of historical fiction. British Council, in partnership with Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, are asking writers to explore the relationship Scotland and the Caribbean share as part of a programme of activity for the Commonwealth Games. They’ve put out […]

Burt Award for Caribbean Literature open for entries until 24 Oct 2014

The Burt Award for Caribbean Literature: You can now submit your book or manuscript! Submissions are now being accepted for the second round of the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature until October 24th, 2014. Books, self-published books, graphic novels and manuscripts written for young adults by Caribbean authors are eligible. To consult the guidelines and access the […]

Bloody Scotland crime writing short story competition

Bocas Lit Fest workshop participants can win a trip to Stirling! Writers from anywhere in the world are invited to enter the 2014 Bloody Scotland short story competition and win a top prize of £1,000. Bloody Scotland is seeking exceptional crime short stories based on the theme of ‘ESCAPE’.  You can interpret the theme in any way that […]

Relive the Bocas experience through the festival audio archive

For its 2014 edition, with the support of Flow, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest launched Festival Radio, an audio project aiming to bring the festival experience to a global audience. In addition to a live stream of festival events accessed by listeners around the world, the Festival Radio team produced Festival Daily, a daily audio […]

Jamaican author A-dZiko Gegele wins the inaugural Burt Award for Caribbean Literature

Jamaican Author A-dZiko Gegele Wins Burt Award for Caribbean Literature First Prize Thousands of copies of three winning titles to be distributed to youth through unique literary award’s book purchase and distribution program The first winners of a unique literary award that will provide thousands of youth across the Caribbean region with access to exciting new […]

Festival Daily Podcast #4 – A Bocas Saturday

Highlights of the penultimate day of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest 2014, featuring Gaiutra Bahadur, Vladimir Lucien, Barbara Jenkins and OCM Bocas prize judges Bernadine Evaristo and Boyd Tonkin – plus the announcement of the winner of the OCM Bocas prize. You can access the entire set of Festival Daily podcasts at https://soundcloud.com/bocaslitfest/sets/ngc-bocas-lit-fest-festival.

Festival Daily Podcast #3 – Friday at Bocas

Highlights of the second full day of events at the Bocas Lit Fest 2014 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, featuring Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson; Monique Roffey, last year’s winner of the OCM Bocas Prize; 2014 OCM Bocas Prize shortlists Lorna Goodison and Robert Antoni; the Allen Prize for Young Writers, plus a taste […]

Festival Daily Podcast #2 – Day One Highlights

Listen to highlights of the first full day of events at the Bocas Lit Fest 2014 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, including a government Minister with a penchant for the arts, Trinidadian novelist Earl Lovelace and the announcement of the winners of the 2014 Bocas Henry Swanzy award.

Festival Daily Podcast #1 – Bocas Lit Fest 2014 Preview

As Bocas Lit Fest 2014 kicks off, Festival Radio talks with the festival organisers about what’s in store and with a librarian about the state of reading and libraries in Trinidad and Tobago; and catches up with two visiting crime writers from Scotland.

Shuttle Service from the Queen’s Park Savannah to the Festival Village

Worried about parking on weekdays downtown? You can park in the secure paddock next to the Grand Stand in the Queen’s Park Savannah, and hop in our Festival shuttle to get to NALIS. Enter the Savannah opposite Chaud Cafe/ Dundonald Street, and follow our signs to the gated parking area. The shuttle is only available from Wednesday […]

An Evening of Alice Yard Douens

By Shivanee Ramlochan, 2014 Bocas Lit fest blogger What is Douen Islands? It’s a free downloadable pamphlet of poems, written by Trinidadian journalist and author of Trick Vessels, Andre Bagoo. You could also say that it’s: a project bearing numerous limbs a series of unfixed destinations an archipelagic chain a curiosity shoppe Perhaps one of the […]

Lend Us Your Ears: Bocas Introduces Festival Radio

Festival Radio

Once upon a time, you needed to be physically present at the National Library to enjoy the offerings of the Bocas Lit Fest. This year, however, you’ll be able to listen to the readings, talks, and other items on the festival programme from the comfort of your—well, from wherever you have access to an Internet […]

HeLa at the Trinidad Theatre Workshop

As part of the British Council’s 2014 Momentum Project, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest is working with partners to make cultural links between the Caribbean and Scotland. HeLa is a thrilling one-woman play based on the book about the medical exploitation of an African-American woman, Henrietta Lacks — whose genes have been involved in many recent […]

Douen Islands: In Forest & Wild Skies

Saturday 12 April, 2014, 8 pm Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain Douen Islands is an ongoing, open collaborative project — featuring writers, poets, musicians, artists, photographers, and others — first launched on All Hallow’s Eve, 2013, by poet Andre Bagoo and designer Kriston Chen. On Saturday 12 April, Alice Yard will […]

Three writers join the shortlist for the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize

Two writers from Jamaica and one writer from Trinidad and Tobago have made the shortlist for the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. From a longlist of ten titles in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, the prize judges have chosen a winning book in each genre category. Kei Miller’s Writing Down the Vision was chosen […]

A Bocas Evening at Alice Yard: Five by Night – New Fiction from T & T

By Shivanee Ramlochan, 2014 Bocas Lit fest blogger A chilly Woodbrook evening beneath the stars, in Alice Yard’s plein air art and culture space: this was the setting for a special literary event showcasing Trinidad and Tobago’s writing talent, on March 25th. This year’s NGC Bocas Lit Fest is a mere four weeks away, as […]

Looking at the Bocas 2014 Longlist: The Butterfly Hotel

By Shivanee Ramlochan, 2014 Bocas Lit fest blogger Published by Peepal Tree Press in 2013. “I am from Choppers, chicken coops and cuatros. I am from the flickering flame of a deya, blue at the wick, luminous, smelling of kerosene. I am from the tiny engine of a hummingbird revving its wings in front of […]

Five by Night: new fiction from T&T

Tuesday 25 March, 2014, 8 pm Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain The NGC Bocas Lit Fest presents an evening of new and recent fiction from five Trinidadian writers, as part of the programme for the Diasporic Literary Archives workshop in Port of Spain. 2013 OCM Bocas Prizewinner Monique Roffey will join […]