
Nine books have been longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media. The longlisted books, announced on 8 March, 2023, are:
Poetry
The Day-Breakers, by Michael Fraser (Biblioasis)
Sonnets for Albert, by Anthony Joseph (Bloomsbury)
de book of Joseph, by Pamela Mordecai (Mawenzi House)
Fiction
Moon Witch, Spider King, by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton/Riverhead)
When We Were Birds, by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Hamish Hamilton/Doubleday)
The Island of Forgetting, by Jasmine Sealy (HarperCollins Canada)
Non-fiction
Love the Dark Days, by Ira Mathur (Peepal Tree Press)
Buyers Beware: Insurgency and Consumption in Caribbean Popular Culture, by Patricia Joan Saunders (Rutgers University Press)
Diary of a Recovering Politician, by Godfrey Smith (The Angelus Press)
The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, first presented in 2011, is an annual award for literary books by writers of Caribbean birth or citizenship.
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 category, who will determine category shortlists and winners.
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 will determine the overall winner.
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.
Overall chair:
Bernardine Evaristo (UK)
Poetry
- Chair: Richard Georges (BVI)
- Desiree C. Bailey (TT/US)
- Emily Greenwood (Cayman/US)
Fiction
- Chair: Ronald Cummings ( Jamaica/Canada)
- Cherie Jones (Barbados)
- Lauren Francis-Sharma (US)
Non-fiction
- Chair: Lisa Outar (Guyana/US)
- Ruth Borthwick (UK)
- Philip Nanton (SVG/Barbados)
Eligibility and entry guidelines
These guidelines have been updated for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize. Please read carefully.
The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, first presented in 2011, is an annual award for literary books by Caribbean writers. 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. (Note: textbooks, technical books, coffee-table books, specialist publications and reference works are not eligible.)
There will be a panel of three judges for each category, who will determine category shortlists and winners.
The three category winners will then be judged by a panel of four judges — consisting of the chairs of the category panels and the prize chair — who will determine the overall winner.
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.
To be eligible for entry for the 2023 prize, a book must:
- Have been first published in the calendar year 2022 (1 January to 31 December);
- Have been written by a single author who either holds Caribbean citizenship or was born in the Caribbean (this must be verified by the publisher), regardless of current place of residence;
- Have been written by an author who is living on 31 December, 2022;
- Have been written and first published in English originally (i.e. translations are not
eligible); - Be a new work, previously unpublished in book form (though collections including poems, stories, essays, or other short pieces that have individually appeared in print in periodicals or anthologies are eligible).
See Appendix 1 for a list of territories which constitute the Caribbean for the purposes of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
- Books must be entered by their publishers (though judges may call in further books at their discretion).
- Books must be available for purchase in hardcopy, i.e. books that are only available as e-books are not eligible.
- Publishers must complete the online entry form for each title, and upload a PDF of the final book file.
- Publishers must also provide five physical copies of each title entered sent by reliable courier to The Bocas Lit Fest (or one copy to any judges based in the same country and others to The Bocas Lit Fest).
- Publishers must agree to provide a further six copies of shortlisted titles.
- Self-published books may be submitted by their authors, following the same procedure outlined for publishers. Self-published authors should provide their own contact information on the entry form.
- There is no requirement for publishers of eligible books to be located in the Caribbean.
- Each publisher may enter a maximum of five books per category (poetry, fiction, non-fiction), for a maximum of fifteen titles per publisher. A book may be entered in only one category. Publishers must get authors’ consent for entry.
- There is an entry fee of US$35 (TT$240) per title. We can accept US dollar bank drafts (drawn on American banks only) made payable to The Bocas Lit Fest or credit card payments made online through WiPay Caribbean or Paypal. Please select your payment option in the online form. Note: Trinidad and Tobago authors or publishers can pay in local currency.
- Each entry should be accompanied by a short biographical note on the author. Publishers must also provide digital photos of shortlisted authors.
- Books will be accepted for entry at the discretion of The Bocas Lit Fest. Decisions on eligibility are final.
- Books published before 31 October, 2022, must be delivered to the Bocas Lit Fest (or directly to judges, where applicable) by 7 November, 2022. ONLY books published between 31 October and 31 December, 2022, will be accepted for entry by the second deadline, 6 January, 2023. Eligible books that arrive after each deadline date will not be considered and entry fees will not be returned. There will be no exceptions to this rule.
- Publishers must send the books by courier to the Bocas Lit Fest office to guarantee timely arrival and onward dispatch to judges:
Marina Salandy-Brown
Bocas Lit Fest
38 Coblentz Avenue Cascade
Trinidad and Tobago Telephone: 1 (868) 222 7099
However, if a publisher is located in the same country as one of the category judges, one copy of the relevant title should be sent directly to that judge. Other copies should be sent to the Bocas Lit Fest at the above stated address.
Please contact the prize administrators at info@bocaslitfest.com for the names and locations of relevant judges.
- The 2023 prize longlist will be announced in March 2023. The shortlist will be announced in April 2023. The overall winner will be announced at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, in Port of Spain, 28–30 April, 2023.
- Publishers must agree that extracts from shortlisted books may be published in the Trinidad and Tobago Express and any other print or digital prize publications for purposes of promoting the winning titles and the OCM Bocas Prize.
- Publishers should notify authors of titles entered for the prize that the three category winners may be invited to attend and participate in the festival and the award ceremony in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and/or record a filmed interview.
- Category winners and the overall winner of the OCM Bocas Prize are expected to be willing to represent the Prize at international festivals and other fora if invited to do so. Please confirm that the writer whose work is being submitted would be prepared to accept this condition of entry.
- Publishers must use a reliable international courier (not regular air mail) to send entries, to ensure prompt delivery. The word “gift” must be marked on the air waybill and commercial invoice, and the description must clearly state that the books are “for reading purposes and not re-sale.”
- For any queries about eligibility requirements or the submission process, please contact the prize administrators at:
For the purposes of the OCM Bocas Prize, the Caribbean is defined as including the following countries and territories:
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Aruba
- The Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bermuda
- Bonaire
- British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- Cuba
- Curaçao
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- French Guiana
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- Martinique
- Montserrat
- Puerto Rico
- Saba
- St Barthélemy
- St Kitts and Nevis
- St Lucia
- St Martin/Sint Maarten
- St Vincent and the Grenadines Sint Eustatius
- Suriname
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turks and Caicos
- US Virgin Islands
NB: books entered for the OCM Bocas Prize must be originally written and published in English.
Past winners of the OCM Bocas Prize
2022
Overall and fiction winner: Pleasantview, by Celeste Mohammed
Poetry winner: Talking With Trees, by Jason Allen-Paisant
Non-fiction winner: Things I Have Withheld, by Kei Miller
2021
Overall and poetry winner: The Dyzgraphxst, by Canisia Lubrin
Fiction winner: These Ghosts Are Family, by Maisy Card
Non-fiction winner: The Undiscovered Country, by Andre Bagoo
2020
Overall and poetry winner: Epiphaneia, by Richard Georges
Fiction winner: Everything Inside, by Edwidge Danticat
Non-fiction winner: Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging, by Tessa McWatt
2019
Overall and non-fiction winner: High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Culture, by Kevin Adonis Browne
Poetry winner: Doe Songs, by Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné
Fiction winner: Theory, by Dionne Brand
2018
Overall and fiction winner: Curfew Chronicles, by Jennifer Rahim
Poetry winner: Madwoman, by Shara McCallum
There was no non-fiction winner for 2018, as the judges did not believe any of the eligible books “could be held to represent the best of regional writing”
2017
Overall and fiction winner: Augustown, by Kei Miller
Poetry winner: Cannibal, by Safiya Sinclair
Non-fiction winner: Virtual Glimpses into the Past/A Walk Back in Time: Snapshots of the History of Trinidad and Tobago, by Angelo Bissessarsingh
2016
Overall and fiction winner: The Pain Tree, by Olive Senior
Poetry winner: Wife, by Tiphanie Yanique
Non-fiction winner: The Gymnast and Other Positions, by Jacqueline Bishop
2015
Overall and poetry winner: Sounding Ground, by Vladimir Lucien
Fiction winner: A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James
Non-fiction winner: Dying to Better Themselves: West Indians and the Building of the Panama Canal, by Olive Senior
2014
Overall and fiction winner: As Flies to Whatless Boys, by Robert Antoni
Poetry winner: Oracabessa, by Lorna Goodison
Non-fiction winner: Writing Down the Vision: Essays and Prophecies, by Kei Miller
2013
Overall and fiction winner: Archipelago, by Monique Roffey
Poetry winner: Fault Lines, by Kendel Hippolyte
Non-fiction winner: The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays, by Rupert Roopnaraine
2012
Overall and fiction winner: Is Just a Movie, by Earl Lovelace
Poetry winner: The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman, by Loretta Collins Klobah
Non-fiction winner: George Price: A Life Revealed, by Godfrey P. Smith
2011
Overall and poetry winner: White Egrets, by Derek Walcott
Fiction winner: How to Escape from a Leper Colony, by Tiphanie Yanique
Non-fiction winner: Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, by Edwidge Danticat