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Olive Senior

#bocas2025 #alwayscominghome

Biography

Olive Senior, Jamaica’s 2021-2024 Poet Laureate, is the award-winning author of 18 books of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s literature and other published work. Her many awards include Canada’s Writers Trust Matt Cohen Award for Lifetime Achievement, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies and the Gold Medal of the Institute of Jamaica. Her work has been taught internationally and is widely translated. Olive Senior is from Jamaica and lives in Toronto, Canada, but returns frequently to the Caribbean which remains central to her work.

Awards

2015 OCM Bocas Prize for Nonfiction Winner, 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature Overall Winner

Years Attended

2015 Adult’s Festival Participant, 2016 Adult’s Festival Participant, 2020 Adult’s Festival Participant, 2021 Adult's Festival Participant, 2021 Youth Fest Participant, 2022 Adult’s Festival Participant, 2025 Adult’s Festival Participant, 2025 Featured Speaker

Olive Senior

Author, Bocas Children's Book Prize Judge, Children's Author
Jamaica
Events Featuring Olive Senior
2025
Book Launch: Celeste Mohammed and Olive Senior
Festival Programme Event
Fiction Event
Event Date: May 4, 2025 @ 4:30 pm
Old Fire Station
2025
WE LIT Spotlight: A conversation with Olive Senior
Festival Programme Event
Fiction, Poetry, WE LIT Event
Event Date: May 2, 2025 @ 10:30 am
Old Fire Station
2022
Fierce as an Island
Festival Programme Event
Event Date:
2021
Author Access Pass: Olive Senior
NGC Bocas Youth Fest Event
Event Date:
2021
Launch Of The 100 Caribbean Books That Made Us
Festival Programme Event
Event Date:
Online