“What’s your story?” is the theme and tagline of the 2023 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual festival of books and writers, which launched its upcoming programme today. Running from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 April, the largest annual literary event in the Anglophone Caribbean — now in its 13th year — returns
The influence of Trinidad-born, US-based Caribbeanist scholar Sandra Pouchet Paquet in shaping decades of intellectual and critical thought is impossible to understate. This year, the Bocas Lit Fest is awarding her the 2023 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters, in recognition of her pioneering contributions to the fields of academia, literature,
All of us on the Bocas Lit Fest team are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of writer Trinidadian writer Jennifer Rahim on 13 March, 2023. Jennifer was a poet, fiction writer, scholar, teacher, mentor, and winner of the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for her brilliant book Curfew Chronicles. It was a privilege for
SEVEN-year-old author Isaac Price is the youngest writer ever to have entered and short-listed for the 2022 Bocas Lit Fest Youth Writer Award. On January 7, Isaac attended the NGC Bocas Lit Fest Youth Writer Award Ceremony as a nominee. He was given special recognition at the ceremony for being the youngest national literary talent
Ranging from debut authors to already celebrated prizewinners, nine writers have been longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media, owner of the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper, TV6, and the OCM radio network. Now in its 13th year, the OCM Bocas Prize is considered the most coveted
The 2023 First Citizens National Poetry Slam has moved into the semi-final round, with 30 poets making the cut. The 3-day hybrid auditions showcased performers of all ages, including veterans, past winners, and newcomers, and was streamed live on the National Poetry Slam’s Facebook page and the Bocas Lit Fest’s YouTube channel. 72 hopefuls auditioned
The 2023 instalment of the First Citizens National Poetry Slam is set to begin just after Carnival. With auditions kicking off on Friday 24 February, the hotly contested annual spoken word championship has returned to its traditional pre-COVID schedule, leading up to the annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest, running from 28 to 30 April. The
Juan Anibal Barria After almost five years, we say goodbye to Port of Spain. My wife Maria Angelica and I have been tremendously happy in TT and, though we return soon to Chile, we do so with sadness. We have discovered a fascinating country blessed with its geography, its traditions, and its cultural diversity. Every
Like so many others in the world of Caribbean letters, the Bocas Lit Fest team are shocked and deeply saddened at the death of Gordon Rohlehr (1942–2023), literary scholar, cultural commentator, intellectual mentor, and emeritus professor at the University of the West Indies. He was a beloved teacher and a public intellectual in the best
NGC’s Dragonzilla’s Short Story Challenge My Covid Stories Story Book 10 is the latest addition to a series of illustrated children’s books written by children aged 5 to 12 on the NGC Bocas Children’s Storytelling Caravan launched in 2011. Since then Bocas Lit Fest (BLF) has worked with hundreds of children throughout Trinidad and Tobago
