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 of US$15,000, will give the winning Caribbean-based writer time to advance a poetry collection. It includes a year’s mentoring by an established poet and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive creative writing course of their choice at Arvon.
The winning writer will also have three days in London to network with literary professionals, hosted by the UK’s leading creative writing organisation, Arvon, in association with Free Word Centre and agents Rogers, Coleridge & White, and receive a cash award of £3,000 or US$4,500.
This is year 3 of the Prize. In 2012, the Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers prize was for fiction and was won by Barbara Jenkins of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2013, Jamaican Diana McCaulay took home the prize for non-fiction. The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize is presented at Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, in Port of Spain in late April.
To qualify, writers must be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, aged over 18, living in the region, and not yet published a poetry collection. Full details of how to enter are on the website are available here.