The eighth year of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest returned with another action-packed programme of over 100 events.
In 2018 we encountered writers who won major international awards like the Man Booker Prize, the Windham Campbell Prizes, the Forward Prize for Poetry, and our very own OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. But in this programme you’ll also first-time authors and others who were on the verge of being published, who shared their work at our Stand and Deliver sessions, and honed their skills in our extraordinary workshop series.
Caribbean literature is always our special focus, but the festival also featured wonderful authors from around the world – in 2018 from places as far-flung as Sri Lanka and New Zealand, featured in a special series of events considering island perspectives. They joined writers from Britain, Canada and the USA, with ancestral roots in countries as diverse as Ghana and Iran, a true reflection of the global community of literature, which defies the cheap attempts of international politicians to build barriers and burn bridges.
What else will you find in our 2018 programme? Performances and discussions celebrating some of T&T’s best-loved indigenous artforms, conversations about writers’ archives and our built heritage, dramatic readings, literary tributes, stimulating intercultural exchange through translation and the third annual CineLit: Latin American and Caribbean Literary Film Festival, plus a rich programme of events for children and teenage readers.
We’re proud that the NGC Bocas Lit Fest has been established as the essential time and place for new Caribbean books to make their debuts. Also look out for Doe Songs, the first book of poems by Danielle Boodoo-Fortune, and De Rightest Place, the debut novel of Barbara Jenkins – both winners of the former Hollic Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize – as well as new books of poems by Vahni Capildeo and Loretta Collins Klobah a new novel by Anthony Joseph based on the life of the late, great Lord Kitchener, a family memoir by Savi Naipaul Akal, a sumptuous collection of Carnival photographs by Maria Nunes, and even more.
And, alongside the prestigious OCM Bocas Prize and the CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature, we announced the new Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize for emerging authors, and promoted the finalists of the first People’s Choice T&T Book of the Year Award, decided by public voting. Dive in and learn more about the festival, it’s Always Lit and 2018 was no exception!
