Our Team

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest’s organising team includes:

Marina Salandy-Brown is founder and Festival Director. She is a prize-winning former BBC programme maker with a publishing background, and former executive director of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. Since 2005 she has been a Newsday columnist. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a former member of the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Literary panel, and in 2005 was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Westminster. In 2013, she was awarded the Doctor of Letters (DLitt), Honoris Causa of the University of the West Indies.

Funso Aiyejina is Deputy Festival Director. He is a prize-winning Nigerian poet, short story writer, playwright, and literary critic. He has published extensively on African and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures, with a central focus on the work of Earl Lovelace. He is Professor Emeritus of Literatures in English, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.

Nicholas Laughlin is Programme Director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest and a member of the OCM Bocas Prize organising committee. He is editor of the arts and travel magazine Caribbean Beat and The Caribbean Review of Books. He is also co-director of the contemporary art space Alice Yard, and a writer with a particular interest in Caribbean literature and art. His book of poems The Strange Years of My Life was published in 2015.

Danielle Delon is Director of the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest. She is the editor of The Letters of Margaret Mann, is a former magazine editor and is the editor and publisher of Bridges of Trinidad and Tobago, Ice Age Trinidad and A Handbook of Trinidad Cookery, under the Cassique Publications imprint.

Anna Lucie-Smith, Manager, Festival and Publishing

Marielle Forbes, General and Hospitality Manager. She is the main guest liaison for visiting guests.

Jean Claude Cournand, Manager, Youth Outreach

Ardene Sirjoo, media coordinator

Ariana Herbert, Children’s Festival coordinator

Natacha Jones, Children’s Festival host

Malene Joseph, Programme Coordinator

Shivanee Ramlochan, Festival Blogger and Social Media Coordinator

Mickel Guanfranco Alexander, Spoken Word Events Coordinator

Stefan Rampersad, Marketing Assistant

Ashlee Burnett, Social Media Assistant

Marlon James, Official Festival Photographer

Dianne Wells, Events Coordinator

Richard Rawlins and Melanie Archer, Graphic Design