Reading with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest – Sangre Grande
by Barbara Jenkins Sangre Grande Library on a Wednesday afternoon, the day after the Tuesday Divali holiday, and traffic from Port of Spain is so light you can be excused for thinking that Trinidad has not only adopted but extended the Spanish ‘Puente’ whereby a public holiday falling near a weekend is bridged by having […]
Reading with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest – Tobago
by Barbara Jenkins Tobago one Friday morning by air and Charlotteville Library in the afternoon, Funso and Marielle are confident of the route and destination – they’d met the coordinator when they’d delivered a stack of Sic Transit Wagon for the readers a couple of months before. I concentrate on what’s ahead, as the car, […]
Reading with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest – Point Fortin
by Barbara Jenkins We approach Point Fortin Library by our own national geographic voyage of discovery, ie, guided by Waze, Shivanee’s smartphone app. We go along bits we recognise — Mosquito Creek, Shore of Peace, and bits we don’t – narrow bridges of wood where at night, no lights, only candleflies, you’d be sure to […]
Reading with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest – Princes Town
by Barbara Jenkins Princes Town Library would not have been so hard to find if we had secured directions before leaving town. As it was, the scenic route led us to the back entrance/car park of an RBC where a helpful security guard put us on the right track through the most bustling, lively, densely […]
Reading with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest: San Fernando
by Barbara Jenkins San Fernando came next, billed as Carnegie, not San Fernando Library. I really, really love it when an original name is retained after relocation or transformation of a building or a function. Something to be applauded, admired even. We don’t do much of that here. The Old Fire Station at NALIS Port […]
Reading with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest: Arima
by Barbara Jenkins I’ve come back home after a September spent in the UK to discover that NALIS and Bocas, supported by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, have organised nine established reading groups in South & East Trinidad and Windward & Leeward Tobago to read Sic Transit Wagon. Fuh true? I […]
Challenging the world to take stock of the new era of Caribbean writing
The NGC Bocas Lit Fest challenges the world, including the Caribbean, to take stock of the new era of Caribbean writing. For many North Americans, Cuba and Haiti grab the headlines, sometimes the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, while the rest of the Caribbean is just a tropical dream come true – sun, sea, sand and […]
Spoken word is on the Move
A spirited journey in spoken word poetry across Trinidad and Tobago is underway. It is the third nationwide Courts Bocas Secondary Schools Speak Out Tour in which members of The 2 Cents Movement visit 50 schools to share some of the most stirring, thought-provoking and topical performances with a number of highly enthusiastic secondary school […]
Papillote Press to publish Burt Award winner: Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay
Papillote Press, the Bocas Lit Fest and CODE are delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of Gone to Drift by the award-winning Jamaican writer Diana McCaulay. This young adult novel, which won second prize in the CODE’s Burt Award for Caribbean Literature (2015), will be published on 29 February 2016. Gone to Drift tells the story of a 12-year-old […]
A Conversation on Historical Fiction
Writing Caribbean Lives into Colonial History: A Conversation on Historical Fiction Featuring Robert Antoni and Caryl Phillips. Saturday 3 October, 2015 from 6pm at the Learning Resource Centre, UWI, St. Augustine. Free and open to all. This event will be live streamed via www.ansacaribbeanawards.com.
Register now for workshops at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest South
Registration is now open for the two workshops at the 3rd annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest South, Sunday 11 October on San Fernando Hill. Pre-registration is required due to limited space. The workshops will run from 12 noon – 2pm, leading into an exciting afternoon of performance, readings, open mic, book signing, discussion panels and spoken […]
CaribLit fiction editing workshop: call for applications
As part of its programme to develop publishing skills in the Caribbean, CaribLit, in partnership with Commonwealth Writers, with support from the British Council and CODE, will conduct a skills development workshop for emerging fiction editors from 18 to 22 January, 2016. Administered by the Bocas Lit Fest, the workshop will take place in Georgetown, […]
2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature open
The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature is now open for entries. It is the only prize in the region that is open to Caribbean writers of different literary genres. Now in its sixth year, the Prize has become the benchmark of literary excellence and is much sought after by Caribbean writers all over the […]
Save the date of Bocas South! Sunday 11 October, 2015
Save the date! We’re heading to San Fernando Hill on Sunday 11 October for the third NGC Bocas Lit Fest South. Join us for a day of readings, workshops, discussion, theatre, open mic, spoken word, children’s storytelling and more. See the full festival programme here. See you there!
Bocas goes to the Brooklyn Book Festival
We’re excited to announce that Bocas will present a showcase of contemporary Caribbean poetry, including the US launch of the Coming Up Hot anthology, as a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend event. Thursday 17 September, 7pm, at The Old Stone House in Park Slope. NYC friends, see you there!
Listen to Bocas Tobago events as they happen
Can’t make it to the Tobago NGC Bocas Lit Fest? Don’t miss out! You can listen to the readings, talks, and other items on the Tobago Programme 2015 from the comfort of your—well, from wherever you have access to an Internet connection! Listen to Bocas events at the Scarborough Library as they happen via our live audio stream, […]
Storytelling for the young and old in Tobago
TELL YOUR OWN STORY AND WIN A PRIZE. SATURDAY 11 JULY. 10-10.45am International prizewinning storyteller Glenda Rose Nassoma Layne who thrilled everyone at the NGC Bocas children’s festival in April is back to weave her tales or fantasy and mystery. And we all want to hear yours!
An evening of films to celebrate Earl Lovelace at 80
The Opening event of the Tobago NGC Bocas Lit Fest Thursday 9 July 2015 Audio Visual Room, Scarborough Library, Garden Side Street Free & open to all! OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature Earl Lovelace, 2012 Overall Winner for Is Just A Movie Time: 5:00-5:45pm Earl Lovelace: A writer in his place Producer/Director: Funso Aiyejina 2014 […]
Festival-on-Demand
Missed this year’s NGC Bocas Lit Fest? You can listen to full-length audio recordings via our festival-on-demand page, or follow us on soundcloud so you never miss a Bocas podcast! Listen and enjoy! 2015 Festival Sessions (full-length)
Register now for writing workshops in Tobago
Two interactive workshops to help improve and advance your creative writing Date: Saturday 11 July Time: 4 – 6pm Venue: Scarborough Library, Garden Side Street Details: Numbers limited to 20 per workshop and pre-registration required. To register, call: 71 BOCAS or email: [email protected]. Both workshops cost $100, payable at the door. No Scene, No Story! Writing fiction […]
Bocas pays tribute to Earl Lovelace in Tobago
Following on the heels of the recent 5th annual festival in Port of Spain, the Tobago festival will have at its heart a tribute to one of the Caribbean’s most accomplished and celebrated writers, Earl Lovelace, who is 80 years old this year. “At the Port of Spain festival”, says festival director Marina Salandy-Brown, “we […]
Bocas and ALTA deepen literacy drive
The Bocas Lit Fest and the Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA) have launched a new initiative to promote literacy through literature in a special series of readings by local authors. Some of Trinidad and Tobago’s best writers are visiting adult literacy classes to read from their books and to talk to literacy students about the books […]
CODE’s 2016 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature is open for submissions
CODE’s 2016 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature is now open for submissions Eligible books and manuscripts must be received at the office of the Bocas Lit Fest by 31 October 2015. In its third year, the Award, established by Canadian education NGO CODE with the generous support of the Literary Prizes Foundation and in partnership […]
The country’s best spoken word artists take the stage at True Talk, No Lie on Wed 27 May
The Verses Bocas Poetry Slam top three perform at True Talk, No Lie On Wednesday 27 May, the regular open mic event True Talk, No Lie features the Top 3 Poets from the Verses Bocas Poetry Slam: Akile Wallace, Derron Sandy, and Kleon McPherson. If you missed the epic spoken word competition finale on May 3 at the 2015 NGC […]
Guyanese writer Imam Baksh wins CODE’s Burt Award for Caribbean Literature first prize
The second year of winners of a unique literary award that provides thousands of youth across the Caribbean region each year with access to exciting new titles were announced on May 1st. The 2015 award ceremony for CODE’s Burt Award for Caribbean Literature, recognizing outstanding literary works for young adults written by Caribbean authors, was […]
Looking at the 2015 Bocas Shortlist: Sounding Ground
By Shivanee Ramlochan, 2015 NGC Bocas Lit Fest Blogger “Now, you concoct your own geography: to roads that should have shrivelled into primitive paths of red dirt, that should’ve stained your shoes, led you to the squat satisfaction of some zinc-roofed hut. You should’ve felt the loneliness of all the night’s windowsills, the fleeting interest […]
Looking at the Bocas 2015 Longlist: The Merchant of Feathers
By Shivanee Ramlochan, 2015 NGC Bocas Lit Fest Blogger “As I walk through a bazaar on the beach where vendors sell fruits, fried fish, fragrant oils, calabashes, hemp dresses, natural juices, a woman walks out of the waves: “I must read your palms, O woman of magic.” She pulls me down into the sand, sits […]
Five Caribbean poets shortlisted for Hollick Arvon Prize
Poets from three Caribbean countries in the running for region’s leading emerging writers’ award The judges for the 2015 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize have announced a shortlist of five, chosen from among the ten previously longlisted writers. The leading Caribbean award for emerging writers will be awarded this year in the field of poetry. […]
Call for creative work by students
Call for submissions of students’ work inspired by Caribbean literature Send us your best work for an exhibition to be mounted at the National Library during the NGC Bocas Lit Fest 2015 The exhibition will display original, creative work by young people aged 12 – 18 inspired by their readings of the 2014 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature […]
The Spoken Word Intercol Champion
At last week’s exciting finals of the Courts Bocas Secondary Schools Spoken Word Intercol competition, Michael Logie of St. Augustine Secondary School, had to pull out all the stops to beat his rivals for the top prize. The 18-year old’s poem, The Birds, The Trees and I, wowed the judges with its rhyme, up-to-the minute […]