
Latest news: Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed is the overall winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

The winners in the three genre categories, which formed the previously announced the shortlist for the overall prize, are:
Poetry
Thinking with Trees, by Jason Allen-Paisant (Carcanet Press)
Fiction
Pleasantview, by Celeste Mohammed (Ig Publishing/Jacaranda Books)
Non-fiction
Things I Have Withheld, by Kei Miller (Grove Atlantic/Canongate)
Nine books were previously longlisted for the prize:

Poetry
Thinking with Trees, by Jason Allen-Paisant (Carcanet Press)
What Noise Against the Cane, by Desiree C. Bailey (Yale University Press)
Zion Roses, by Monica Minott (Peepal Tree Press)
Fiction
What Storm, What Thunder, by Myriam J.A. Chancy (Harper Perennial)
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, by Cherie Jones (Little, Brown/Tinder Press)
Pleasantview, by Celeste Mohammed (Ig Publishing/Jacaranda Books)
Non-fiction
Cuba: An American History, by Ada Ferrer (Scribner)
Things I Have Withheld, by Kei Miller (Grove Atlantic/Canongate)
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime and Dreams Deferred, by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (Bold Type Books)
The 2022 shortlist will be announced on 27 March.
The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature is an annual award for literary books by Caribbean writers, first presented in 2011. Books are judged in three categories: poetry; fiction — both novels and collections of short stories; and literary non-fiction — including books of essays, biography and autobiography, history, current affairs, travel, and other genres, which demonstrate literary qualities and use literary techniques, regardless of subject matter.
There is a panel of three judges for each genre category, who determine category shortlists and winners.Â
The three category winners are then judged by a panel of four judges — consisting of the chairs of the category panels and the prize chair — who determine the overall winner.Â
The author of the book judged the overall winner will receive an award of US$10,000. The other category winners will receive US$3,000.
Deadline for books published between 1 January and 31 October, 2021, was 8 November, 2021. Books published between 31 October and 31 December, 2021, were accepted for entry by the second deadline, 7 January, 2022. Â
For any queries about eligibility requirements or the submission process, please contact the prize administrators at [email protected]
The 2021 Prize Winners

In April 2021, the judges for the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature announced that The Dyzgraphxst by Canisia Lubrin was the overall winner. The shortlist for the 2021 prize was made up of the winners in the three genre categories:
POETRY
The Dyzgraphxst, by Canisia Lubrin (McClelland & Stewart)
FICTION
These Ghosts Are Family, by Maisy Card (Simon & Schuster)
NON-FICTION
The Undiscovered Country, by Andre Bagoo (Peepal Tree Press)
Past Winners

The Dyzgraphxst
By Canisia Lubrin
Published By McClelland & Stewart
2021 Overall Winner (Poetry)

The Undiscovered Country
By Andre Bagoo
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2021 Non-fiction Winner

These Ghosts Are Family
By Maisy Card
Published By Simon & Schuster
2021 Fiction Winner

Epiphaneia
By Richard Georges
Published By Out Spoken Press
2020 Overall Winner (Poetry)

Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging
By Tessa McWatt
Published By Scribe Publications
2020 Non-Fiction Winner

Everything Inside
By Edwidge Danticat
Published By Alfred A. Knopf
2020 Fiction Winner

Doe Songs
By Danielle Boodoo-Fortune
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2019 Poetry Winner

High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Culture
By Kevin Adonis Browne
Published By University Press of Mississippi
2019 Overall Winner (Non-Fiction)

Theory
By Dionne Brand
Published By Alfred A. Knopf
2019 Fiction Winner

Madwoman
By Shara McCallum
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2018 Poetry Winner

Curfew Chronicles
By Jennifer Rahim
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2018 Overall Winner (Fiction)

Cannibal
By Safiya Sinclair
Published By University of Nebraska Press
2017 Poetry Winner

Augustown
By Kei Miller
Published By Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2017 Overall Winner (Fiction)

A Walk Back in Time: Snapshots of the History of Trinidad and Tobago
By Angelo Bissessarsingh
Published By Queen Bishop Publishing
2017 Non-Fiction Winner

Wife
By Tiphanie Yanique
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2016 Poetry Winner

The Pain Tree
By Olive Senior
Published By Cormorant Books
2016 Overall Winner (Fiction)

The Gymnast and Other Positions
By Jacqueline Bishop
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2016 Non-Fiction Winner

Sounding Ground
By Vladimir Lucien
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2015 Overall Winner (Poetry)

Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal
By Olive Senior
Published By UWI Press
2015 Non-Fiction Winner

A Brief History of Seven Killings
By Marlon James
Published By Riverhead Books
2015 Fiction Winner

Oracabessa
By Lorna Goodison
Published By Carcanet Press
2014 Poetry Winner

As Flies to Whatless Boys
By Robert Antoni
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2014 Overall Winner (Fiction)

Writing Down the Vision: Essays and Prophecies
By Kei Miller
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2014 Non-Fiction Winner

Fault Lines
By Kendel Hippolyte
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2013 Poetry Winner

Archipelago
By Monique Roffey
Published By Simon & Schuster
2013 Overall Winner (Fiction)

The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays
By Rupert Roopnaraine
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2013 Non-Fiction Winner

The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman
Published By Peepal Tree Press
2012 Poetry Winner

Is Just a Movie
By Earl Lovelace
Published By Faber & Faber
2012 Overall Winner (Fiction)

George Price: A Life Revealed
By Godfrey P. Smith
Published By Ian Randle Publishers
2012 Non-Fiction Winner

White Egrets
By Derek Walcott
Published By Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2011 Overall Winner (Poetry)

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work
By Edwidge Danticat
Published By Vintage Books
2011 Non-Fiction Winner

How to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories
By Tiphanie Yanique
Published By Graywolf Press
2011 Fiction Winner