Skip to content

Anthony Vahni Capildeo

#bocas2025 #alwayscominghome

Biography

Anthony V. Capildeo FRSL is a Trinidadian Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction. Currently Professor and Writer in Residence at the University of York, their site-specific word and visual art includes responses to Cornwall’s former capital, Launceston, as the Causley Trust Poet in Residence (2022) and to the Ubatuba granite of the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds (2023), as well as to Scottish, Irish, and Caribbean built and natural environments. Their numerous books and pamphlets, from No Traveller Returns (Salt, 2003), Person Animal Figure (Landfill, 2005) onwards, are distinguished by deliberate engagement with independent and small presses. Their work has been recognized with the Cholmondeley Award (Society of Authors) and the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection. Their most recent book is Polkadot Wounds (Carcanet, 2024). Their interests include silence, translation theory, medieval reworkings, plurilingualism, collaborative work, and traditional masquerade. Recent commissions include research-based Windrush poems for Poet in the City and for the Royal Society of Literature. They are the winner of a 2025 Windham-Campbell Prize.

Awards

2016 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection Winner

Years Attended

2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2025 Adult’s Festival Participant, 2025 Featured Speaker

Anthony Vahni Capildeo

2021 OCM Bocas Prize Judge, Chief Judge
Trinidad & Tobago, UK
Events Featuring Anthony Vahni Capildeo
2025
Take Two: Anthony Vahni Capildeo and Lawrence Scott
Festival Programme Event
Poetry Event
Event Date: May 3, 2025 @ 2:00 pm
Old Fire Station
2021
Winners’ Row
Festival Programme Event
Event Date:
2021
Placing The “Caribbean” In Caribbean Writing
Festival Programme Event
Event Date: