The much-anticipated 2021 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize is open for submissions in the poetry genre. This is the third round of the pan-Caribbean developmental award for emerging writers.
The Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize, managed by The Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago and Arvon in the UK, is an annual award that allows an emerging Caribbean writer living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean to devote time to advancing or finishing a literary work with support from an established writer as mentor.
The prize is offered across three literary genres over a three-year period. The current 2021 round is for poetry. The fiction winner, Sharma Taylor of Jamaica, was announced in 2019 at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. In 2020, Amanda Choo-Quan of Trinidad and Tobago was announced as the non-fiction winner in a special video announcement (watch it here).
The Prize consists of a generous cash award, a year’s mentorship, travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon creative writing course at one of Arvon’s internationally renowned writing houses and three days in London, which includes being featured at an event hosted by Arvon in association with the Free Word Centre.
Philanthropist Dr. Kongsheik Achong Low, sponsor of the prize, is a medical practitioner and Chairman of Medcorp Limited. The prize is named for his parents and commemorates their lives as hardworking citizens whose children have continued to contribute to the building of Trinidad and Tobago.
Click here for the prize guidelines and entry form. Submissions close on 30 September 2020.
