Adalber Salas Hernández
Adalber Salas Hernández is a Spanish-Venezuelan poet, essayist and translator. He is the author of several books of poems, including Isolario/Islarium (2024), Salvoconducto (2015, winner of the XXXVI Arcipreste de Hita Prize), Río en blanco (2016), and mínimos (2016). He has published translations of Marguerite Duras, Antonin Artaud, Charles Wright, Mário de Andrade, and several Caribbean authors, among others. He is currently based in Mexico City.
Alison Donnell
Alison Donnell is Head of School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her latest research project on Caribbean Literary Heritage (2017–2020) is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and brings her critical interest in recovering neglected writers together with her commitment to safeguarding the future of the literary past.
Andre Bagoo
Andre Bagoo is a writer, poet, and essayist. His books include the essay collection The Undiscovered Country (Peepal Tree Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction, as well as five poetry collections, most recently Midnight Bestiaries (Broken Sleep Books, 2024). His fiction debut, The Dreaming, was published by Peepal Tree in 2022.
Ayesha Gibson-Gill
Ayesha Gibson-Gill is a Barbadian cultural sector entrepreneur, creative producer, actor, writer, stage and audio director, literary development consultant, tour-guide, sometime vocalist, and full-time mother. She has been a long standing member of the Central Bank of Barbados’ Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Committee, adjudicating the nation’s most prestigious literary prize in addition to coordinating developmental opportunities for local writers. She was Cultural Development Officer for Literary Arts at the National Cultural Foundation Barbados for nine years, coordinating national literary competitions, business, and educational programmes, developing literary products, and producing and creatively directing multimedia events. She spearheaded the evolution of the distinguished Arts Etc NIFCA Winning Words Anthologies, into a series including a Brazilian Portuguese translation and into the e-book format. Ayesha co-founded and manages the interactive literature design company Story Shyft, which produced the fully dramatised audiobook for the award-winning collection In Time of Need by Shakirah Bourne. Story Shyft also produced the interactive augmented reality enhanced interpretation of a public mural in Bridgetown.
Bartosz Wojcik
Bartosz Wójcik is an assistant professor (Applied Linguistics, Maria Curie Skłodowska-Curie University, Lublin, Poland), cultural manager, author of Afro-Caribbean Poetry in English: Cultural Traditions (2015), and member of the Polish Literary Translators Association. He has published translations of prose by Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), Diana McCaulay, Kei Miller (Jamaica), Kevin Jared Hosein, Sharon Millar, Jennifer Rahim (Trinidad and Tobago), as well as poetry by Jacqueline Bishop, Kei Miller, Tanya Shirley (Jamaica), Lauren K. Alleyne (Trinidad / USA), Roger Robinson (Trinidad / UK), Grace Nichols (Guyana / UK), and Salena Godden (UK). His recent translations into Polish include Mohammed el-Kurd’s poetry collection Rifqa (2025) and Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise (2026).
Brigid Washington
Brigid Washington is a Trinidadian food writer who has covered a variety of topics, including Caribbean food and culture as it intersects with life in the United States. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Washington is the author of the new memoir Salt, Sweat and Steam. Her writing has appeared in Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Garden & Gun, Harper’s Bazaar, Southern Living, The New York Times, and a number of other publications. She serves as the vice chair of the journalism committee for the James Beard Foundation.
Camille Hernández-Ramdwar
Camille Hernández-Ramdwar is a Trinidadian-Canadian author and scholar. Her debut collection of short stories Suite as Sugar was published by Dundurn Press in 2023. Camille’s earlier work appeared in numerous anthologies and journals including Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction; Mercury Retrograde; and “but where are you really from?” Stories of Identity and Assimilation in Canada. She has been shortlisted for the Otherwise Award and received numerous literary grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Shevchenko Foundation for her two upcoming novels. Camille is Professor Emerita at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she headed the Caribbean Studies programme for almost twenty years. She left academia in 2022 to write full-time.
Canisia Lubrin
Canisia Lubrin’s most recent book is The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem, winner of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry. Her previous books include Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, and Code Noir. Lubrin’s work has been recognized with the Griffin Poetry Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Derek Walcott Prize, the Writer’s Trust of Canada Rising Stars prize, and others. Also a finalist for the Trillium Award for Poetry and Governor General’s Literary Award, Lubrin has held fellowships at the Banff Centre, Civitella Ranieri in Italy, Simon Fraser University, Literature Colloquium Berlin, Queen’s University, and Victoria College at University of Toronto. She studied at York University and the University of Guelph, where she now coordinates the Creative Writing MFA in the School of English & Theatre Studies. In 2021, Lubrin received a Windham-Campbell prize for poetry, and the Globe & Mail named her Poet of the Year. Code Noir: Metamorphoses is her debut fiction, and includes stories listed for the Journey Prize (2019, 2020), Toronto Book Award (2018) and the Shirley Jackson Award (2021). Born in St. Lucia, Lubrin now lives in Whitby, Ontario, and is poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart.
Celeste Mohammed
Celeste Mohammed is a Trinidadian lawyer-turned-writer. Her debut novel-in-stories Pleasantview (Jacaranda, 2021) won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the UK Society of Authors McKitterick Prize, and her debut non-fiction book A Different Energy: Women in Caribbean Oil was published in 2023. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts and she received a 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet and teaching artist, born in Trinidad and Tobago. Her collections of poetry include Raw Air (2000), Night When Moon Follows (2000), Convincing the Body (2005), and Arrival (2017), which was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. Mama Phife Represents (2021) was awarded the 2022 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry by The Publishing Triangle. Boyce-Taylor is the recipient of the 2015 Barnes & Noble Writers For Writers Award and a VONA fellow. Her life papers and portfolio are stored at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.
Christina Cooke
Named a “Writer to Watch” by CBC Books and Shondaland, Christina Cooke is the author of Broughtupsy – named a “Best Book of 2024” by Elle, Electric Literature, CBC Books, and Debutiful, in addition to being named a must-read title by over 30 outlets including Vogue, The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, and Kobo. A MacDowell fellow and Journey Prize winner, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick, a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and has been named the inaugural Poets & Writers Fellow at Vermont Studio Center. Her short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, PRISM international, Prairie Schooner, Electric Literature, LitHub, and others. Born in Jamaica, Christina is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City.
Contender
Contender, a.k.a. Mark John, is a leading calypsonian from Trinidad and Tobago. He has been singing calypso since the late 1960s and was the National Junior Monarch title in 1966 and 1967.
Cristina Bendek
Cristina Bendek is an author from the Caribbean islands. She was born on the island of San Andrés in October 1987. Los cristales de la sal (Salt Crystals) her first novel, won the 2018 Elisa Mújica National Narrative Prize (Colombia). It has been translated into Portuguese (Editora Moinhos, 2021); Danish (Aurora Boreal, 2020); and English (Charco Press, 2022). Her work in journalistic genres circulates in digital and print media, where she offers a cultural and political analysis of the Caribbean and the international dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua over the sea of the San Andrés Archipelago.
Deneka Thomas
Deneka Thomas (they/them) is a queer, non-binary writer, performance poet, arts educator and media practitioner from Trinidad and Tobago. Deneka is the founder and Creative Director of Bacano Leaf, a creative social enterprise that nurtures the Caribbean’s stories and culture by empowering young people to write and speak about their experiences, concerns, and their hope for better futures for themselves. Through poetry slams, workshops, digital media, and various creative initiatives, Bacano Leaf creates space for young people’s voices to grow and flourish.
Internationally recognized for their work on gender issues, LGBTQ+ advocacy, women’s empowerment, and environmentalism, Deneka has earned their place among some of the Caribbean’s most dynamic voices. They are the 2018 Grand Slam Champion of the First Citizens National Poetry Slam, a third-place winner in 2019, and a five-time finalist of the competition. Their words have resonated on stages like TEDx Port of Spain 2018, the Trinity College Hip Hop Festival 2019, the Women Deliver Conference 2019, and the Nairobi Summit (ICPD+25).
Deneka’s debut poetry collection, “These Hallowed Parts,” is on its way to the world. It maps a journey of coming out, trauma, and coming to terms with their queerness. Their work has also found homes in Moko Magazine, Shade Literary Arts, and other literary spaces, where it continues to stir dialogue and push boundaries. Their poems are love letters, battle cries, confessions, and calls to action, all at once. To witness their work is to reckon with the beauty and ache of what it means to exist, to heal, to hope.
Elisha Efua Bartels
elisha efua bartels is a writer, performer, teacher, director and stage-manager, and a founding member of Metamorphosis Dance Company.
She spent time in Washington D.C. acquiring her degree in the Performing Arts, performing and stage-managing with companies from Bowen Macaulay Dance to the Washington Shakespeare Company and Folger Shakespeare Library, and freelancing as an associate producer/writer for The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU, 88.5fm.
Since her return to T&T, she has been published, written radio plays for BBC Radio4 & BBC Radio3 and continues to teach, direct and perform with 3canal, griot productions, and many other reputable groups.
She is strongly committed to raising the standard and the profile of the arts in sweet T&T, empowering we the people by showing Trinbagonians we can be, and are, the subjects and authors of our own stories.
Elizabeth Cadiz Topp
Elizabeth Cadiz Topp is an independent curator, arts educator, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. She is the author of Deep Indigo (2021) and co-editor (with Anthony Luengo and Lise Winer) of A Branch to Rest On: The Autobiography of George Wright.
Ella Berthoud
Ella Berthoud is a passionate advocate for how reading fiction can change your life. She is co-author of The Novel Cure: an A-Z of Literary Remedies, and co-founder of the Bibliotherapy Service at The School of Life in London.
Fawzia Muradali Kane
Fawzia Muradali Kane is an architect and poet. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago, and now lives in London. Her poem “Eric” written in Trini Creole won 2nd place in the UK’s 2023 National Poetry Competition, and “Namesake” was Highly Commended in 2025’s Forward Poetry Prize. Her second poetry collection Guaracara was published by Carcanet Press in 2025. She is currently working on a bilingual collection of poetry based on her experiences living in rural Fukuoka, Japan.
Georgia Popplewell
Georgia Popplewell is a writer/editor and media producer and managing director of the international citizen media project Global Voices. She has worked in independent media since 1989. She started her career at the pioneering Trinidad and Tobago television production company Banyan and has worked on productions such as the Nickelodeon TV series Gullah Gullah Island, in addition to having written extensively on culture, music, film and sport. In 2005, Georgia started Caribbean Free Radio, the Caribbean’s first podcast.
Jannine Horsford
Jannine Horsford is a fellow of the Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency 2024, the inaugural Moko Magazine Poetry Masterclass 2018, the 2016 Callaloo Writers’ Workshop, and the Cropper Foundation Caribbean Writers’ Workshop 2014. In 2016 she was shortlisted for the Small Axe Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been published in The Caribbean Writer, Caribbean Quarterly, The Manchester Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Moko Magazine, Magma, and others. In December 2020, she was awarded an artist’s grant from CATAPULT: A Caribbean Arts Grant, and in 2021 she was longlisted for the Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers’ Prize. In April 2022, she won the Bocas Emerging Writers Fellowship for Poetry. Her debut poetry chapbook Jurassic Coast was published in 2024 by Peekash Press.
Jarrel De Matas
Jarrel De Matas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioethics and Health Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He earned his BA and MA from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His work explores how stories shape health, ethics, and public trust in medicine. His first academic book (Routledge, 2025) is titled Caribbean Futurism and Beyond: Conversations with Writers of Folklore, Fantasy, Science, and Speculative Fiction. Jarrel is also a columnist for the Daily Express in Trinidad and Tobago and the Galveston County Daily News.
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 The Saturday Brunch. He is also the DJ for Freetown Collective and DJ for 3canal. Passionate about Trinbago culture, its preservation and evolution he recently graduated with a post grad diploma in Arts and Cultural Enterprise Management from UWI, St Augustine. Outside of work, he is a father, husband, son and friend.
Joel Frederick
Joel Frederick is an author from Trinidad and Tobago, has four published books of poetry. All of these books are written about life experiences, including love and related emotions.
Johnny Temple
Johnny Temple is the publisher and editor in chief of Akashic Books, an award-winning Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction. Temple won the 2013 Ellery Queen Award; the American Association of Publishers’ 2005 Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing; and the 2010 Jay and Deen Kogan Award for Excellence in Noir Literature. He is also the chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council, which works with Brooklyn’s borough president to plan the annual Brooklyn Book Festival in September. He is the editor of USA Noir.
Judy Raymond
Judy Raymond, writer, journalist and editor, is a former editor in chief of the T&T Newsday and Trinidad Guardian. Her latest book is the biography Beryl McBurnie (UWI Press, 2018). Her short story “The Old Monsters” was shortlisted for the 2023 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean.
June Aming
June Aming is a fiction writer who resides in Trinidad and Tobago. Her short stories have been included in several anthologies, and the story “Carnival Baby” was shortlisted for Small Axe competition 2014. She has previously shared her work at Carifesta X and at the Miami Book Fair 2013, 2014 and 2015. She was a 2024 Bocas Breakthrough Fellow. Her debut fiction chapbook, Yellow Is Not for Girls Like Me, was published in March 2025 by Peekash Press.
Justin Haynes
Justin Haynes was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and later moved to Brooklyn, New York. Having earned his MFA from Notre Dame, he continued his graduate studies at Vanderbilt University. He has been awarded various fiction residencies and fellowships, including from the Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio Center, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Tin House Summer Workshop. His writing has been published in a variety of literary magazines and journals, including Caribbean Quarterly, SX Salon Small Axe Project, and PREE. Justin lives in Atlanta and teaches English at Oglethorpe University. Ibis, his debut novel, is the winner of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction.
Kara Roopsingh
Kara Roopsingh is a cultural heritage specialist and advocate, experienced in strengthening cultural heritage institutions, advancing preservation policy, and leading heritage climate change initiatives in the wider Caribbean. She is the Curator of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Museum, where she oversees strategic planning, exhibition development, collections stewardship, and public engagement, with a focus on modernizing museum practices and expanding community reach. She has successfully managed major international grants, led national cultural heritage programmes and resilience planning in collaboration with international organisations. A Fulbright alum, she is one of the founding members and Vice-President of the Trinidad and Tobago Alliance of Museums (TTAM).
Karen Barrow
Karen Barrow is an award-winning author of atmospheric historical fiction and suspense. Her novel Palmyra, winner of the 2024 Whistler Independent Book Award for Fiction, has been recognized internationally as a finalist for the Guernica Prize, the Page Turner Awards, and the Eric Hoffer Award.
Kelly Baker Josephs
Kelly Baker Josephs is Professor of English at the University of Miami. She is the author of Disturbers of the Peace: Representations of Insanity in Anglophone Caribbean Literature (2013) and co-editor of The Digital Black Atlantic (2021). She is currently Director of the Caribbean Digital Scholarship summer institute, co-organiser of The Caribbean Digital annual conference, and co-principal investigator of the Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.