Welcome to the latest installment of the Bocas Book Bulletin, a monthly roundup of Caribbean literary news, curated by the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, and published in the Sunday Express.
New Releases
Greetings from the Barracuda Hotel (Self-Published) by Ronaldo Katwaroo presents short stories steeped in the horrific and macabre, with the fictitious Barracuda Hotel functioning as an architectural and psychological centrepiece to the characters’ baleful journeys. Katwaroo, shortlisted at 19 years old for the 2022 NGC Bocas Youth Writer Award, brings menace and mystery to the page, reaching into the roots of local and Caribbean folklore, then imbuing them with his contemporaneous take on the unsettling.
We’ve Been Here Before (Dundurn Press) by Myrtle Henry Sodhi approaches the lives of its subjects in nonlinear time, moving from Dominica to Canada, exploring themes of religious persuasion, the isolation and fury of institutional racism, and the ongoing quest to define one’s own womanhood. Switching narrative perspectives, and moving between encounters that are both real and illusory, We’ve Been Here Before meditates powerfully on the prices one pays, across generations and continents, for freedom.
Death of the Soccer God (MCD) by Dimitry Elias Léger establishes the fictional, tempestuous story of Gilbert Chevalier, a lauded athlete in the prime of his athletic career, whose meteoric rise to fame is unexpectedly — and brutally — cut short. Based on the real life and history of Haitian footballer Joe Gaetjens, who was disappeared and likely assassinated in 1964, Death of the Soccer God is an immersive, captivating look at the high cost of fame.
Layaway Child (House of Anansi Press) by Chanel Sutherland, winner of the overall 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, gathers short stories deeply inflected by the costs — emotional, mental, financial, spiritual — of migration and immigration in Caribbean families, at home and across the diaspora. With tenderness and pathos, Sutherland convincingly captures the often-nebulous feeling of ‘in-betweenness’, not belonging to one fixed geographical place or another, frequently experienced by Caribbean people as they strive towards better lives.
Smallie (Viking) by Eden McKenzie-Goddard situates its reader in the catalytic era of 1960s Windrush Britain, moving through decades to the present day. Influenced by real life events, Smallie unapologetically probes the sinister foundations of the Windrush scandal, while simultaneously unwinding an affecting story of love, desire, and female empowerment in a heteropatriarchal system. This debut novel sings lyrically, captivatingly, of the inner lives of those unsung figures who were critical in building contemporary Britain.
Bocas Academy Launches June, July, and August Workshops
Bocas Academy, the online and in-person learning resource and author development arm of the Bocas Lit Fest, is offering three sessions over the next three months, designed to reach writers of multiple skill levels at home and abroad. On Saturday 27 June, 1-3 PM via Zoom, Breanne Mc Ivor, author of The God of Good Looks, will lead a masterclass on Writing the Taboo. The session will focus on practical approaches to dispelling doubt and building confidence when approaching intense, often incendiary subject material. Jumpstart July, a curated online weeklong writing bootcamp, will run from Monday 13 to Monday 20 July, dedicated to breaking writers of fiction and nonfiction out of their midyear creative slumps. On Saturday 22 August, Anu Lakhan, author of The Proper Care of Knives, will lead a detailed Zoom workshop on poetry editing, called The Fine Line. The objectives of this session are to enhance and strengthen the quality of poets’ work, with particular emphasis on drafting and redrafting techniques.
Scribbles and Quills, independent bookseller, is running a three-hour poetry editing workshop with Lakhan on Saturday 13 June, to be held in person onsite at their store, 6 Gaston Street, Lange Park, Chaguanas.
Further information and registration details for the Bocas Academy’s June, July, and August offerings are available via https://academy.bocaslitfest.com/, or by emailing [email protected].
An Evening of Tea & Readings at Paper Based
Paper Based Bookshop will host its first Evening of Tea & Readings event of 2026 at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair, on Saturday 20 June, 5.30 pm. The evening will feature readings and presentations by a quartet of writers and artists. Patricia Mohammed, pioneer in Caribbean feminist studies since the late 1970s and Emerita Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the UWI St. Augustine, will read from her authorized biography of the first female President of Guyana, Janet Jagan: Freedom Fighter of Guyana. Savitri Rampersad, author of Steelpan Vibrations: Unlocking the Human Mind, will present scenes from her recently-launched publication, which probes connections between the human mind and T&T’s beloved national instrument. Che Lovelace, fine artist and son of the soil who has exhibited globally, will reveal a close look at his first full-scale self-titled monograph, which assembles a wide range of his artworks. Jeannine A. Cook, novelist, bookseller and activist, will share a reading from her creative nonfiction debut, Shut Up and Read: A Memoir from Harriett’s Bookshop.
For further details and ticket information, contact Paper Based Bookshop at 628-3197 or via email at [email protected].
BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest – Open for Submissions
The 2026 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Short Fiction Story Contest is open for entries in two categories — regionally-based and diaspora-based writers — under the theme “What Cannot Be Done Alone”. The prize asks entrants to consider themes of “survival, contested belonging, inheritance and repair” in their submissions. Winners receive a $1,750 USD cash award, a BCLF trophy, and publication in several literary magazines.
Submissions close on 1 July at 11:59 pm ET. For further information, visit https://www.bklyncbeanlitfest.org/about-bclf-short-fiction-story.
Caribbean Bestsellers
Paper Based Bookshop (Instagram: @paperbasedbookshop) shares its top-selling Caribbean titles for the past month:
1. Ibis, by Justin Haynes
2. The Snag: A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief, by Tessa McWatt
3. The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound, by Raymond Antrobus
4. Palmyra, by Karen Barrow
5. Broughtupsy, by Christina Cooke
