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
101 Birds of Tobago’s Rainforest (Self-Published) by wildlife photographer and environmentalist Faraaz Abdool has been released in commemoration of 250 years of the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve. Abdool’s photographs of numerous bird species, ranging from postcard-popular avians to lesser-known subspecies, are accompanied by informative biodata captions. Focusing not only on the individual birds, the book makes an integrated case for their overall importance to the continued sustainability and natural development of the Main Ridge Forest Reserve itself, drawing attention to the oldest legally protected rainforest in the Western Hemisphere.
sipèstisyon (YesYes Books), the debut of Haitian-American Mckendy Fils-Aimé navigates trauma and superstition in poems that reach deep into spiritual practices, time-honoured rituals, and the marked generational differences that often arise over oppositional observances of faith. Reframing perspectives of migrant childhood and transitory youth against the uneven road towards healing, sipèstisyon treads the boards of self-doubt and recrimination towards acceptance and internal validation. The speakers of Fils-Aimé’s poems are by turns reflective, nostalgic, and defiant in their attitudes, insistent on authentic navigations towards the selves they most yearn to become.
Rebel Heiress (Joy Revolution) third in The Diamonds young adult romance series by Amalie Howard, presents witty and likeable protagonists caught up in a Regency-era mistaken identity caper. Howard, born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, designates an ethnically diverse cast, starring Lady Rosalin Chen who chafes at society’s expectations. When Rosalin enrolls herself at the all-male Trinity College, she encounters Tarik St. Clair, whose intelligence and curiosity are a match for her own. This low-angst romance is tailored for readers twelve and up, and can be read by all.
Masqueraders: Selected Essays (Carcanet Press), the full-length nonfiction debut by Trinidadian Scottish Anthony V. Capildeo presents essays, letters, and dispatches originally published across years in PN Review. The settings of these writings, which move from the diaristic to the scientific, roam from Paper Based Bookshop in Trinidad, to the late poet Charles Causley’s Cornwall cottage, to literary festivals around the globe. Capildeo writes with intensity, virtuosity, and focus, whether they describe becoming a member of the Belmont Exotic Stylish Sailors or attending Zoom funerals for beloved former secondary school teachers.
Haunting the Black Air (Bloomsbury) by Anthony Joseph moves its reader musically, with compressed and elegant density, through Trinidad in the eyes of labourers, lovers, families and upstarts. Joseph’s poetic focus is as polyphonic as it is sustained in its interest in Trinidadianness—including, notably, when that local spirit meets the incessant call of the world outside. The poet is attentive, too, to the creative legacies of other Caribbean writers, such as Kamau Brathwaite and Anthony McNeill, not so much eulogizing them as allowing their spirits to imbue the space.
Bocas Arima comes to East Yard
“All Together Now” remains the focus of this year’s Bocas Arima festival, on Saturday 22 August at East Yard, Prince Street, Arima. Bocas Arima 2026, the second in a series of four one-day community literary and cultural festivals across Trinidad and Tobago, is presented by Methanex Trinidad.
The program features a Literary Tour of East Trinidad, with readings from classic and contemporary works of fiction and poetry that represent singular aspects of life in the region. Books in focus for the Bocas Arima leg of the literary tour are C.L.R. James’ Beyond a Boundary, Michael Anthony’s Green Days by the River, Lawrence Scott’s Aelred’s Sin, and Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné’s Doe Songs.
Bocas Arima’s Spoken Word Competition, drawing on the talents of secondary school-aged youth in Arima and its environs, will form an essential component of the one-day festival. Participating youth will have the opportunity to workshop their pieces on the very day, in advance of their presentations, during a teaching session led by multidisciplinary artist and former National Poetry Slam winner, Deneka Thomas.
Bocas Arima, is free and open to the public.
Anthony V. Capildeo Launches Masqueraders
Bocas Lit Fest, supported by NALIS, the National Library and Information System Authority, presents the launch of Anthony V. Capildeo’s Masqueraders on Wednesday 5 August at 6 pm, located at the Pamela Benson AV Room, NALIS, Port of Spain. Renowned as one of the most innovative writers at work today, Trinidadian-Scottish Anthony V. Capildeo is the winner of the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, a 2025 Windham-Campbell Prize, and the 2016 Forward Prize. Capildeo will be in conversation with Ira Mathur, winner of the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Nonfiction, and copies of Masqueraders will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to all.
Books and Brews at The Writers Centre
On Saturday 15 August, Faraaz Abdool, author of 101 Birds of Tobago’s Rainforest, will read from and discuss his work at an upcoming Books and Brews event, hosted at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair, by Paper Based Bookshop and Sleepy Cat Cafe. The book, a work of photography, presents an array of bird species located in Tobago’s Main Ridge Forest Reserve. In an intimate gathering, Abdool will discuss the publication, in a talk that covers the book’s motivations, inspirations, and connection to environmental preservation initiatives. Copies of 101 Birds of Tobago’s Rainforest will be available from Paper Based Bookshop for purchase.
Books and Brews with Faraaz Abdool is free and open to the public.
CCCCC Youth Short Story Competition
The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Youth Short Story Competition is open for entries from all CARICOM-country youth aged 18 to 25, on the following theme: “Imagine a climate-secure future for the world. Inspired by the Caribbean.” Entries, ranging from 1500 to 2500 words, will be assessed on criteria of response to the prompt, Caribbean grounding, originality and imagination, narrative craft, language and quality. A MacBook Neo will be awarded to the first-place winner, with regional recognition guaranteed to all winning stories. The deadline for submissions is 23 August. Further information and the short story upload portal can be found at https://caribbeanclimate.org/short-story-competition/.
Caribbean Bestsellers
Paper Based Bookshop (Instagram: @paperbasedbookshop) shares its top-selling Caribbean titles for the past month:
1. When We Were Birds, by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
2. One Year of Ugly, by Caroline Mackenzie
3. Ever Since We Small, by Celeste Mohammed
4. The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief, by Tessa McWatt
5. A Place to Call Home, by Aarti Gosine
