Critics, prizes and publishers all have their say on what qualifies as the “best” book, but now it’s time for readers to choose their best book of the year!
For the first time Trinidad and Tobago is to have an annual literary award for local writers, and the winner is to be chosen by the people.
On Friday 15 December, the Bocas Lit Fest, NALIS and Newsday came together to launch the People’s Choice T&T Book of the Year at the National Library. The initiative will promote local writing and give the public a chance to have their say on the many books published every year by voting for their best read.
The People’s Choice prize aims to raise public awareness of the growing number of books by local writers released in Trinidad and Tobago, in the first instance in the past two years. In future books published in the previous year will be eligible. The prize puts the spotlight on the most popular reads. Through this prize, the public can debate, discuss and get excited about local books.
Bocas Lit Fest, which runs a series of internationally recognised literary awards and is a standard bearer for literary excellence, adds this to its portfolio of prizes, which include the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and the CODE’s Burt Award for Young Adult Caribbean Literature.
“We’re thrilled about the potential for this prize to get people buying and reading books, and to bring attention to work being published every year by T&T citizens here in T&T,” says Bocas Lit Fest founder, Marina Salandy-Brown
Nominations for the People’s Choice T&T Book of the Year prize is open on 16 December, 2017 through 16 February, 2018. All eligible nominated books will appear on the Bocas Lit Fest website and Newsday readers will link to this website here. Voting will be hosted on the Bocas Lit Fest website and will take place in two stages.
Stage one will run from 23 February through 25 April, 2018 and will involve the selection of the top 6 books from all nominated titles. Stage two voting will take place 1 May to 1 June 2018, during which the public will choose among the Top 6 to decide the winner. The announcement of the winner is to be made in early June.
For details of guidelines for the People’s Choice T&T Book of the Year, click here .