Festival Programme

Interested in writing short stories? Struggling to know where to start? Belfast-based writer Jan Carson will guide you through the basics of writing imaginative and engaging short fiction, focusing on key themes such as developing ideas, writing believable characters and convincing dialogue, plot, structure, pacing, and concision.

In their new memoirs, Ira Mathur (Love the Dark Days, winner of the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction), Brian Samuel (A Song for My Father), and Simone Dalton (winner of the 2020 RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Prize) tell stories of family and ancestry that range across oceans and continents. Hosted by Paula Lindo  

Family and friendship weave into rich narrative tapestries in the fiction of Breanne Mc Ivor (The God of Good Looks) and Cleyvis Natera (Neruda on the Park).

It’s a two-part, laid-back, high energy celebration of T&T’s emerging writing talent! Our New Talent Showcase spotlights up and coming authors Jay T. John, Jannine Horsford, and Rajiv Ramkhalawan, followed by our signature open mic event. Want to share your work in our Stand & Deliver open mic? Sign up here!

The newly published Selected Diaries and Writings of Henry Swanzy offer an intimate self-portrait of the Irish-born BBC Caribbean Voices editor who played a crucial role in the development of Caribbean writers and writing in the 1940s.

The performance of the self, the unpredictability of the body, and the intensity of queer desire animate new poetry collections by Andre Bagoo (Narcissus), Adam Lowe (Patterflash), and Padraig Regan (Some Integrity), hosted by Brandon O’Brien. In partnership with the British Council and the Belfast International Arts Festival.

Dramatised excerpts from Sam Selvon’s Ways of Sunlight, and the launch of the “Ways of Sunlight” writing competition. Featuring Chelsea Ramjit, David Bereaux, Esther-Marie Jones, Jarod Baptiste, Keda Tempro, and Roderick “Chucky” Gordon Presented by the EU-funded Global Climate Change Alliance+

In Sonnets for Albert, winner of the 2022 T.S. Eliot Prize, Anthony Joseph offers a moving portrait of the bonds and barriers between father and son. He talks about his books and ideas with Amílcar Sanatan.

In their recent books of social history, Cheryl Bowles (The Ladder We Ascend), Dylan Kerrigan (Growing Up Woodbrook), and Beverly Scobie (Via the Roundabout) balance the stories of communities, families, and individuals.

Harold Sonny Ladoo, who died tragically in 1973 at the age of just 28, is one of the most mysterious yet consequential writers produced by T&T.

Three memoirists from T&T share books about eventful careers, ranging from the conference room to the airplane cockpit. With Ronald Harford (Nil Illegitimi Carborundum), Angela Laquis-Sobrian (Breaking Free) and Wendy Yawching (The Courage to Fly), chaired by Franka Philip.

It’s the year’s biggest night of poetry, as T&T’s top performance poets vie for the championship and the first prize of TT$50,000!