Rashad Hosein
Rashad Hosein is a writer, musician and an avid cook. He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Literatures in English and Linguistics at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He is shortlisted for the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.
José Serulle
José Serulle, ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Trinidad and Tobago, Permanent representative at the ACS, and Dean of the Diplomatic Corp, is also a bibliophile and director of an annual arts festival in his country.
Néhémy Pierre Dahomey
Poet, philosopher and novelist, Néhémy Pierre-Dahomey was born in Haïti in October 1986. He studied philosophy at the ENS (École Normale Supérieure) in Port-au-Prince, and in France at Université Paris 8. He has published poetry in Haïti and his first novel, Rapatriés, was awarded by three French prizes. Néhémy is working on his second novel.
Janet Steel
Janet Steel leads commonwealth writers, the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation. Prior to this post Janet has spent over thirty years working in the cultural sector, primarily in theatre and new writing. Starting out as a young actress Janet quickly moved into directing, producing and script development. In 2012 she won an award for […]
Amílcar Sanatan
Amílcar Peter Sanatan is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus and a 2024 Bocas Breakthrough Fellow. His poetry has appeared in BIM Magazine, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, The Caribbean Writer, Cordite Poetry Review, Gutter, Interviewing the Caribbean, Magma, Moko Magazine, PREE Lit, Sargasso and […]
Kevin Adonis Browne
Kevin Adonis Browne is a photographer, poet, archivist, and scholar of contemporary rhetoric and Caribbean culture. His book High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Culture, an innovative hybrid of essays, memoir and photography, was the winner of the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and the first non-fiction book to win the overall […]
Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné
Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné is a Trinidadian poet and visual artist. Her accolades include the 2012 Small Axe Literary Competition, the 2015 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize and Wasafiri New Writing Prize, and the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for Poetry for her debut collection Doe Songs. Her poetry is featured in the bilingual anthology […]
Kenneth Ramchand
Ken Ramchand, distinguished literary critic, is the author of the seminal study The West Indian Novel and Its Background. He is Professor Emeritus of West Indian literature at the University of West Indies and a former President of the University of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2014, he received the Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for his […]
Jayron Remy
DJ, Television Show Host, Event Producer, Music Producer and Sound Engineer. These are the skills that Jayron “Rawkus” Remy has gathered over his 20 years in the entertainment industry. Popularly known for hosting Vintage Unplugged, he currently hosts on The Now Morning show on TTT and has a radio show on Talk City 91.1fm called […]
Sharma Taylor
Sharma Taylor’s novel What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You was published in July 2022 by Virago Press in the UK. She won the 2020 Wasafiri Queen Mary New Writing Prize, the 2020 Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award, and the Bocas Lit Fest’s 2019 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize. Four times shortlisted for the […]
Tristan Walker
Tristan Walker is a police officer and father to three daughters. His daughters not only motivate him to write, but to also be a good role model for young persons in Trinidad and Tobago’s society. Mr. Walker hopes that his commitment to becoming an author despite life challenges, will inspire young persons around him to […]
Regina Dumas
Regina Dumas is the owner/manager of an eco-lodge located in rural Tobago and established along the principles taught to her by the rural communities and their non-governmental institutions whose cause she has long sought to serve. Regina’s memoir, Memoir of a Cocoa Farmer’s Daughter, is written as a tribute both to her parents and to rural […]
Jennifer Thomas-Straker
Jennifer Thomas-Straker was born in Ste Madeleine Village, South Trinidad. She attended Naparima Girls’ High School, Corinth Teachers’ College and the University of the West Indies with a B.Sc in Sociology. A teacher for 28 years, she published her first book The Village, The Child in 2018.
Esbeth Callender-Braithwaite
First time author Esbeth Callender-Braithwaite chronicles the experience of trying to adopt a child in her novella Empty Arms.
Theresa Awai
Theresa Awai is an award winning stage, television & film actress and playwright. Her first play “Trini’s Last Carnival” was staged in 2004 at the Little Carib Theatre. In 2006 “Coming Home” won the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago Playwriting Competition and was produced by Raymond Choo Kong Productions. Her latest plays “Happy […]
Motilal Boodoosingh
Motilal Boodoosingh is a short story writer. His stories have been published in several Caribbean magazines, and he has also published two volumes of short stories.
Prithiviraj Bahadursingh
Dr. Prithiviraj Bahadursingh is a Consultant Community Paediatrician working with the South West Regional Health Authority. He works mainly with children with disability and he has been a keen advocate to improve services for children in Trinidad and Tobago. His first novel For the Love of Pan was written to help build awareness and educate about […]
Nicola Ramsaran
Nicola Ramsaran is an author and a certified John Maxwell Speaker and mental health advocate. With a Masters’ Degree and twenty-five years in Education, she retired as Principal to write her journey of life with her Schizophrenic Mom. Her vision: to give voice to the voiceless and support those involved in mental health awareness.
Lesley-Ann Brown
Lesley-Ann Brown is a Trinidadian-American educator, poet and writer who has been based in Copenhagen, Denmark for the past 20 years. She studied Writing and Literature at Eugene Lang College at the New School in New York City and has written for Vibe, the Source and NBCBLK. Considered a pioneer in the blogosphere with blackgirlonmars, Brown also […]
Alexandra Stewart
Alexandra Stewart is a career poet, Teaching Artist and MFA Student, shortlisted for the 2023 NGC Bocas Youth Writer Award. A history maker in the First Citizens National Poetry Slam (8-time finalist, only 3-time Champion, and only consecutive winner) she has stood in the winner’s row for the last 5 years. Alexandra’s passionate performances echo […]
Desiree Seebaran
Desiree Seebaran is a Trinidadian writer and editor. She is an alum of the Cropper Foundation Residential Workshop for Writers (2010) and the inaugural Moko Magazine Poetry Masterclass (2018). Her work has been shortlisted for the 2014 Small Axe Literary Competition (poetry) and the 2017 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets Contest. Her poem ‘Picong’ […]
Jacqueline Laguardia
Jacqueline Laguardia is a Cuban academic, teaching at the Institute of International Relations, UWI, St. Augustine. She is an economist and expert in Caribbean and regional relations.
Merle Hodge
Merle Hodge is a Trinidadian writer, author of the novels Crick Crack Monkey (1970) and The Life of Laetitia (1993), as well as co-facilitator of the Cropper Foundation Writers’ Workshop.
June Soomer
Jane Soomer, a longtime diplomat from St. Lucia, is the first woman to head the Association of Caribbean States, based in Trinidad and Tobago. She is an historian by profession.
Paula Gopee-Scoon
Paula Gopee-Scoon is Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Trade and Industry, with 12 years in public office. Her background is in law and she is a banker by profession.
Sofia Chote
Sofia Chote, attorney and Independent Senator in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago, was previously a public prosecutor, judge of the Supreme Court, and member of the Law Reform Commission and Mercy Committee.
Javier Carbajosa
Javier Carbajosa is ambassador of Spain to Trinidad and Tobago and six other Caribbean countries, Permanent Observer to ACS, Caricom, and OECS, and a former Ambassador at Large for migration issues.
Mariano Brown
Mariano Browne, political commentator and former Minister in the Ministry of Finance and Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago, is the author of many published papers on banking and finance.
James Aboud
James Christopher Aboud is a poet and a lawyer. His book “Lagahoo Poems” (Peepal Tree Press) was awarded the inaugural James Rodway Poetry Prize, offered by Derek Walcott’s Rat Island Foundation in 2004. He has also published “The Stone Rose” (Paria Publishers) and been included in various regional and international literary journals and anthologies. He studied […]
Vashti Bowlah
Vashti Bowlah is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago. Her stories have been published in Caribbean and international journals and have also gained her literary awards and nominations. She is the author of Under The Peepal Tree and Sugarcane Valley.