The region’s most prestigious literary award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, is now open for entries.
The prize is sponsored by One Caribbean Media in Trinidad and Tobago and is now in its eleventh year. It includes a cash award of US$10,000 for the overall winner and US$3,000 each for two genre category winners.
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.
The cross-genre prize is judged in three categories: poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. The 2021 Prize is open to books published in the calendar year 2020. The overall winner is selected from the three category winners and is featured, with shortlisted writers, at the annual literary festival, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
Chairing the distinguished 2021 panel of Caribbean and international judges is the renowned Trinidadian poet Vahni Capildeo, who is joined by nine other regionally and internationally based writers, academics, and publishing professionals.
“Each year around 100 new books vie for the prize. It lines up the very best books written by Caribbean writers in that period and, over the last decade, has become the most complete catalogue of our contemporary literature,” says Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest.