OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

The OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature is now accepting submissions for original, English-language work, first published between January 1 and December 31, 2024, by Caribbean-born or Caribbean citizen authors.

*Submission form will be opened in a new window

About The Prize

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 nonfiction — 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. 

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. 

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

Past Winners

2024

Overall and Nonfiction winner: How to Say Babylon, by Safiya Sinclair
Fiction winner: Hungry Ghosts, by Kevin Jared Hosein
 
Poetry winner: The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, by Nicole Sealey

2023

Overall and fiction winner: When We Were Birds, by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Poetry winner: Sonnets for Albert, by Anthony Joseph

Nonfiction winner: Love the Dark Days, by Ira Mathur

2022

Overall and fiction winner: Pleasantview, by Celeste Mohammed

Poetry winner: Talking With Trees, by Jason Allen-Paisant

Nonfiction 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

Nonfiction winner: The Undiscovered Country, by Andre Bagoo

2020

Overall and poetry winner: Epiphaneia, by Richard Georges

Fiction winner: Everything Inside, by Edwidge Danticat

Nonfiction winner: Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging, by Tessa McWatt

2019

Overall and nonfiction 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 nonfiction 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

Nonfiction 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

Nonfiction 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

Nonfiction 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

Nonfiction 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

Nonfiction 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

Nonfiction winner: George Price: A Life Revealed, by Godfrey P. Smith

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