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
The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie (Pantheon) by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein connects cosmology — the overarching scientific study of the universe — to popular culture, creating linkages between space, time, Black history, Star Trek, and beyond. Prescod-Weinstein, whose first book The Disordered Cosmos was shortlisted in the nonfiction category of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, presents a vision of the universe in which everything is relational and intimately, profoundly connected.
Behold (Peepal Tree Press) by Shara McCallum, the newest collection of poems by the winner of the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, assembles Jamaican childhood memories alongside migration narratives. Acts of witnessing are centred in these verses contemplating works of art in tandem with the underreported lives of everyday citizens. In poems that address the concerns of the present age by calling for deeper and more focused attention, Behold confirms McCallum’s powers as a veteran poet of compassionate meaning.
Riddled (Peepal Tree Press) by Tanya Shirley, the poet’s third collection, brings Shirley’s signature humour and eroticism to bear on new work, steeped in sensuality and life’s myriad complications. Navigating violent behaviours embedded in Jamaican society, the poet seeks sites of light, healing, and joy located in that very culture, too. Riddled is a work moving beyond dichotomies, embracing what it means to be a conscious Black Caribbean woman in a world of harsh contradictions.
And Then Again Begin (Guernica Editions) by H. Nigel Thomas, volume four of the author’s No Safeguards quartet, centres Millington and Jay’s seemingly idyllic marriage, which is itself no stranger to secrets. As the novel progresses, spectres and traumas from both men’s past lives resurface, including religious guilt and shame. And Then Again Begin reckons with the impossibility of ever living an uncomplicated life, and of how queer desire functions in relationships as they advance in years.
The Bush Tea Murder (Crooked Lane Books) by Ashley-Ruth Bernier follows the machinations of an amateur sleuth in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, as she attempts to unwind a string of troubling home-grown criminal cases. The accumulation of mysteries solved by the food journalist turned intrepid gumshoe range from the petty to the blood-curdling. St. Thomas makes for a realistic backdrop to these backyard crime scenes and occasional catastrophes, focusing on realistic attributes of characters rather than sun-and-sea pastiches.
Awards and Prizes
A memoir by Guyanese-Canadian author Tessa McWatt has been named winner of the award for best Caribbean book of the past year. The Snag: A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief is the winner of the overall 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, which comes with a cash award of US$10,000, sponsored by One Caribbean Media Limited. McWatt is the first Guyanese author ever to be named the overall winner, in the 16th year of the Prize. The award was conferred on McWatt during a prize ceremony on Saturday 2 May, during the 2026 Bocas Lit Fest, announced by Chief Judge, celebrated author and publisher, Margaret Busby. Also honoured at the ceremony were poetry winner Canisia Lubrin (for her book The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem) and fiction winner Justin Haynes (for his debut novel Ibis).
Johchele Johnson emerged as the victor of the 2026 National Poetry Slam, with his winning piece entitled “TickeT”. A first-time National Poetry Slam winner, Johnson received a cash award of $25,000, with second and third place winners Derron Sandy and Seth Sylvester receiving $15,000 and $8,000 respectively. The National Poetry Slam, held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts on Sunday 3 May, brought the curtain down on the 2026 Bocas Lit Fest as its official closing event.
The novel Ibis by Trinidad-born Justin Haynes, winner of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction, has also been named winner of the 2026 PEN Open Book Award, given annually by the New York-based organisation PEN America to “an exceptional book-length work of any literary genre by an author of colour.” It comes with a cash prize of US$10,000, and the winner also receives a fully funded residency in Italy.
Canisia Lubrin, winner of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, has been shortlisted for the 2026 Trillium Book Awards, for The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem. The Trillium Book Awards recognise the best books written by Ontario-based writers in fiction and poetry categories, with the winner of the poetry category receiving CAD $10,000. The winners will be announced on 10 June.
Love Forms by Trinidadian-British author Claire Adam has been shortlisted for the 2026 Encore Award, a prize recognising the best second novel published each year in the United Kingdom. Awarded by the UK Society of Authors, it comes with a cash prize of £15,000. The winner will be announced on 13 May.
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. Broughtupsy, by Christina Cooke
5. The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem, by Canisia Lubrin
