The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
Guidelines for entering the 2018 prize will be posted in September 20172017 Winner
The overall winner is Augustown by Kei Miller. The US$10,000 prize was presented at an award ceremony on Saturday 29 April, during the seventh annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain.
2017 shortlist
The judges for the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize have announced the winners of the three genre categories, which now form the shortlist for the overall prize:
POETRY: Cannibal, by Safiya Sinclair (University of Nebraska Press)
FICTION: Augustown, by Kei Miller (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)
NON-FICTION: Virtual Glimpses into the Past/A Walk Back in Time: Snapshots of the History of Trinidad and Tobago, by Angelo Bissessarsingh (Queen Bishop Publishing)
2017 longlist
The judges for the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize chose a longlist of nine books: three each from the three genre categories.
POETRY
House of Lords and Commons, by Ishion Hutchinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Kingston Buttercup, by Ann-Margaret Lim (Peepal Tree Press)
Cannibal, by Safiya Sinclair (University of Nebraska Press)
FICTION
The Marvellous Equations of the Dread, by Marcia Douglas (Peepal Tree Press)
The Repenters, by Kevin Jared Hosein (Peepal Tree Press)
Augustown, by Kei Miller (Weidenfeld and Nicolson)
NON-FICTION
The First Black Slave Society: Britain’s “Barbarity Time” in Barbados, 1636–1876, by Hilary McD. Beckles (University of the West Indies Press)
Virtual Glimpses into the Past/A Walk Back in Time: Snapshots of the History of Trinidad and Tobago, by Angelo Bissessarsingh (Queen Bishop Publishing)
Inward Yearnings: Jamaica’s Journey to Nationhood, by Colin A. Palmer (University of the West Indies Press)
2017 OCM Bocas Prize Judges
OVERALL CHAIR: Edward Baugh (Jamaica)
POETRY JUDGES:
David Dabydeen, Chair (Guyana/United Kingdom)
Nancy Morejón (Cuba)
Peter Straus (United Kingdom)
FICTION JUDGES:
Susheila Nasta, Chair (United Kingdom)
Malaika Adero (USA)
H. Nigel Thomas (St. Vincent and the Grenadines/Canada)
NON-FICTION JUDGES:
Kim Robinson-Walcott, Chair (Jamaica)
Aaron Kamugisha (Barbados)
Patricia Mohammed (Trinidad and Tobago)
About the Prize
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 for the overall winner, sponsored by One Caribbean Media. The other category winners receive a cash award of US$3,000.
The OCM Bocas Prize has two stages. First, panels of distinguished judges select the best book in each of the three genre categories. Next, the chairs of the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction panels, joined by the overall chair and vice-chair of the prize, form a final prize jury to select the overall winner from the three genre winners.
To be eligible for the 2017 prize, a book must have been published in the calendar year 2016, and written by an author born in the Caribbean or holding Caribbean citizenship. Books must also have been originally written in English.
For further information about the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, contact us at info@bocaslitfest.com.
2016 Winners
2015 Winners
2014 Winners
2013 Winners
2012 Winners
2011 Winners
2016 OCM Bocas Prize winners
POETRY: Tiphanie Yanique: Wife (Peepal Tree Press)
FICTION and OVERALL PRIZE: Olive Senior: The Pain Tree (Cormorant Books)
NON-FICTION: Jacqueline Bishop: The Gymnast and Other Positions (Peepal Tree Press)
2015 OCM Bocas Prize winners
POETRY and OVERALL PRIZE: Vladimir Lucien: Sounding Ground (Peepal Tree Press)
FICTION: Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings (Riverhead)
NON-FICTION: Olive Senior: Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal (UWI Press)
2014 OCM Bocas Prize winners
FICTION and OVERALL PRIZE: Robert Antoni: As Flies to Whatless Boys (Akashic Books)
POETRY: Lorna Goodison: Oracabessa (Carcanet)
NON-FICTION: Kei Miller: Writing Down the Vision: Essays and Prophecies (Peepal Tree Press)
2013 OCM Bocas Prize winners
POETRY: Fault Lines, by Kendel Hippolyte (Peepal Tree Press)
FICTION and OVERALL PRIZE: Archipelago, by Monique Roffey (Simon and Schuster)
NON-FICTION: The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays, by Rupert Roopnaraine (Peepal Tree Press)
2012 OCM Bocas Prize winners
POETRY: The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman, by Loretta Collins Klobah (Peepal Tree Press)
FICTION and OVERALL PRIZE: Is Just a Movie, by Earl Lovelace (Faber)
NON-FICTION: George Price: A Life Revealed, by Godfrey P. Smith (Ian Randle Publishers)
2011 OCM Bocas Prize winners
POETRY and OVERALL PRIZE: White Egrets, by Derek Walcott (Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
FICTION: How to Escape from a Leper Colony, by Tiphanie Yanique (Graywolf)
NON-FICTION: Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, by Edwidge Danticat (Princeton)