The 3rd NGC Bocas Lit Fest was incredibly busy and provided the perfect place to lime, ole talk, comment, read, hear, meet, see, laugh, and enjoy an overflowing programme of Trini-style literary revelry, beloved authors, and an array of still little-known writers destined for the literary heights.
By 2013, Bocas Lit Fest had successfully built partnerships with other organisations that shared our ambition to promote the joys of reading and to support and celebrate those who toil for our pleasure, we were more than our annual festival.
The newly launched Hollick Arvon Prize, administered by Bocas, was a major trans-Atlantic partnership forged to advance emerging Caribbean-based writers, and the CaribLit initiative, with the British Council and Commonwealth Writers, was another. It was an exciting new stage of our work.
Bocas was also invited to international literary festivals in South and North America and the UK, and Bocas 2013 formed a part of a global writers’ conversation with the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the British Council.
Children and the young were not forgotten. Locally, we supported the Allen Prize for Young Writers, and formed another international partnership, working with Canada-based CODE to present the Burt Award, designed to promote and grow writing for young adults in the Caribbean. We also joined forces with the 2 Cents Movement to promote spoken word poetry around T&T, and collaborated with ALTA, the Adult Literacy Tutors Association, to extend their work into creative writing.
