Lisa Allen-Agostini
Lisa Allen-Agostini is a writer and editor from Trinidad and Tobago. Her books include the novella Death in the Dry River (1000Volt Press, 2024); 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted novel The Bread the Devil Knead (Myriad, 2021), for which she also narrated the audiobook; the young adult novels Home Home (Papillote Press, 2018; Delacourte Press, 2020), […]
Senator the Hon. Raziah Ahmed
Senator the Hon. Raziah Ahmed is President of the Senate and a lover of Trinidad and Tobago’s folktales. She is a guest reader at the 2015 Children’s NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
Grace Achoy
Grace Achoy is a Trinidadian librarian whose love of reading and passion for her heritage led to the creation of The Black Lake, which is loosely based on an Amerindian folklore about the Pitch Lake in La Brea. She lives in San Fernando.
Marjorie Thorpe
Marjorie Thorpe, is a former Campus and University Dean of the Faculty of Arts and General Studies at UWI, St. Augustine. From 1988 to 1992 she was Trinidad and Tobago’s ambassador to the United Nations. She was the Overall Vice-Chair of the OCM Bocas Prize from 2011 – 2016.
Lawrence Scott
Lawrence Scott is a prize-winning writer from Trinidad & Tobago. He was awarded a Lifetime Literary award in 2012 by the National Library of Trinidad & Tobago for his significant contribution to the literature of Trinidad and Tobago. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019. His new novel is […]
Brinsley Samaroo
Brinsley Samaroo, former Head of the History department at UWI, St. Augustine, has written extensively on the history of Trinidad and Tobago with a focus on working class movements, Indo-Caribbean history and political and institutional development. His most recent work is The Price of Conscience: Howard Noel Nankivell and Labour Unrest in the British Caribbean.
Monique Roffey
Monique Roffey, FRSL is an award winning Trinidadian-born, British writer of novels, essays, literary journalism and a memoir that have been translated into several languages. Her 2020 novel The Mermaid of Black Conch (Peepal Tree Press) won the Costa Book of the Year Award and was nominated for eight major awards. Her other Caribbean novels, […]
Colin Robinson
Colin Robinson has returned home to Trinidad and Tobago twice: from Leeds at age four, and from Brooklyn at forty-five. His debut poetry collection You Have You Father Hard Head was published in 2016.
Shivanee Ramlochan
Shivanee Ramlochan’s first book of poems, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (Peepal Tree Press, 2017) was a finalist for the 2018 People’s Choice T&T Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Shivanee was shortlisted for the 2018 Bridport Prize for Poetry. “The Red Thread Cycle”, […]
Mandisa Pantin
Mandisa Pantin, writer, film producer and director, and has been the script supervisor on three award winning films, Jab in Dark, 2013, Pan! Our Musical Odyessy, 2014 and Sally’s Way, 2015. She is currently working on a biodocumentary of her father, the late Raoul Pantin, writer and journalist.
Shani Mootoo
Shani Mootoo, born in Dublin to Trinidadian parents, raised in Trinidad, and now based in Canada, is a novelist, poet, and visual artist. Her novels include Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, longlisted for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Lambda Award; Valmiki’s Daughter, longlisted for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize; He Drown She in the […]
Sharon Millar
Sharon Millar was born and lives in Trinidad. She is the winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the 2012 Small Axe Short Fiction Award. Her first collection The Whale House and other stories (Peepal Tree Press 2015) was long-listed for the 2016 OCM Bocas Prize. Her work has been anthologized in Pepperpot: Best New […]
Sunity Maharaj
Sunity Maharaj runs her own multi-media production and consulting company. She is the Managing Director of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies and is a senior career journalist
Earl Lovelace
Earl Lovelace is a Trinidadian writer. His books include the Caribbean classic The Dragon Can’t Dance, and Salt, winner of the 1997 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His novel Is Just a Movie won the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and the Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature from the Regional Council of Guadeloupe. He was […]
Louis Lee Sing
Louis Lee Sing, was the Mayor of Port of Spain 2010-2013. His memoir, a document of that office, Local Government in Trinidad — Conspiracy Against the People was published in 2014 by Lee Sing Arts. His most recent book is the novel Between the Bank and the Gutter.
Barbara Lalla
Novelist Barbara Lalla is Professor Emerita, Language and Literature at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine. She is the author of five novels, including By Such a Parting Light, published in 2024. Her numerous scholarly works include Postcolonialisms: Caribbean Rereading of Medieval English Discourse, Defining Jamaican Fiction: Marronage and the Discourse of Survival, […]
Ria Julien
Ria Julien, a NY based Trinidadian, is a literary agent with Frances Goldin Literary Agency in New York City. The boutique agency specialises in literary fiction and non-fiction, especially books with a progressive political orientation. She is a member of the fiction panel of judges of the OCM Bocas prize 2015.
Debbie Jacob
Debbie Jacob is an award-winning journalist, author, librarian, and prison reform activist, whose career spans over three decades and books such as Wishing for Wings and Making Waves: How the West Indies Shaped the United States.
Nnamdi Hodge
Nnamdi Hodge, is a Trinidadian language teacher, researcher and writer, co-producer of Vini Chante an Patois—Come sing in Patois, a bilingual songbook and CD compilation of local patois songs.
Kenneth ‘Ken’ Gordon
Kenneth ‘Ken’ Gordon, former broadcaster, media entrepreneur, captain of industry, senator, Chairman of the West Indies Cricket Board and Chairman of the Integrity Commision, Trinidad and Tobago, his 1999 memoir, Getting it Write: Winning Caribbean Press Freedom, was published by Ian Randle Publishers.
Danielle Delon
Danielle Delon, Director of the NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest, is an author, editor and publisher. Her books include Bridges of Trinidad and Tobago: Side to Side and The Letters of Margaret Mann.
Jo-Anne Ferreira
Jo-Anne Ferreira, is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Her research interests include the history of Portuguese language and culture in the Caribbean and South American French Creole varieties (Trinidadian, Venezuela and Brazilian).
Alvin Daniell
Alvin Daniell, is the composer of several Trinidad and Tobago hit calypsos, an arts television presenter and well known adjudicator of calypso, steelpan and singing competitions throughout the Caribbean.
Roy Cape
Roy Cape, born in Trinidad in 1942, is an internationally renowned calypso and soca musician and bandleader. He has toured widely, played on hundreds of recordings, and released eight albums with his band Roy Cape All Stars. He is co-author of his biography, Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand.
Bridget Brereton
Bridget Brereton is Professor Emerita of history at UWI, St. Augustine, and author of Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad and A History of Modern Trinidad, among other books. She was chair of the non-fiction judging panel for the inaugural OCM Bocas Prize in 2011, and again in 2020.
Rhoda Bharath
Rhoda Bharath is a Trinidadian writer, teacher, and political and cultural blogger. Her debut book The Ten Day’s Executive and Other Stories was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2015.
Funso Aiyejina
Funso Aiyejina is the former Deputy Festival Director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest and a former member of the board of directors of the Bocas Lit Fest. He is the former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and now Professor Emeritus. He is […]