More Than A Literary Festival

The 10th OCM Bocas Prize opens for entries

The 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the region’s most coveted literary award, is now open for entries. Sponsored by One Caribbean Media, the prize, now in its tenth year, also marks the tenth anniversary of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest!

The cross-genre prize offers a cash award of US$10,000 for the overall winner and US$3,000 each for two genre category winners. Categories judged are poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction and the overall winner is selected from among the three category winners. The 2020 Prize is open to books published in the calendar year 2019.

With past winners including both eminent established authors and talented newcomers, the OCM Bocas Prize is coveted by Caribbean writers all over the world who qualify by being of Caribbean birth or citizenship.

Chairing the distinguished panel of Caribbean and international judges is celebrated Trinidad and Tobago writer Earl Lovelace, winner of the 2012 Prize for his novel Is Just a Movie. He is joined by a healthy mix of regionally and internationally based writers, academics, and publishing professionals.

There are two deadlines for submissions: 13 November 2019, and 8 January 2020, depending on the publication date of an eligible title. Click here to download the eligibility and submission guidelines. 

“For a decade, this cross-genre prize has drawn attention to our region’s top writers, old and new, and has anchored the development and reputation of the region’s premier annual literary festival. As we reflect on the last ten, and project into the next, we recognize it is an honour to be a conduit connecting the pool of Caribbean literary talent resident abroad, and here at home, to Caribbean literature-loving audiences everywhere,” says Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest, the NGO administering the prize and the ten-year-old festival in Trinidad and Tobago.

The 2020 NGC Bocas Lit Fest runs from 1 to 3 May. Title sponsor is the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago. OCM is the parent company of the Express newspapers and TV6 radio and the Caribbean-wide OCM radio network.

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