Elizabeth Solomon
Elizabeth Solomon is CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General, Foreign and Community Relations. A citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, she has more than thirty years of legal, communications, and foreign service experience, at both regional and international levels. She has served in various senior-level capacities in the United Nations system, covering complex conflict recovery, governance and foreign relations issues, including in the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary General’s Good Offices Mission in Cyprus; the Office of the Resident Coordinator, Sierra Leone; and UN Missions in Kosovo and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has also served in the United Nations Department of Political Affairs in New York, as Team Leader for the Caribbean Desk. A certified Mediator and Arbitrator, she also served as Judge at the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago.
Elton Johnson
Elton Johnson is a writer, lecturer, and development communication specialist in Jamaica. Currently, he works as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Literatures in English at The University of the West Indies, Mona. He was the 2016 Emerging Global Leader’s Fellow from the US Embassy in Jamaica. His career has been dedicated to using development communication and literary advocacy to improve the lived outcomes of people affected by gender- and sexuality-based discrimination. He has an MPhil in Literatures in English and BA in Media and Communications from The University of the West Indies, Mona. His work has been published in literary magazines such as Callaloo, The Write Launch, and The Nabu Review. He is currently working on his short story collection, Where Parallel Lines Meet.
Erna Brodber
Erna Brodber, activist, scholar, and writer is a 2017 winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize. She has also won a Prince Claus Award (2006), Jamaica’s Musgrave Medal (1999), and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (1989). Her latest novel is Nothing’s Mat (2014).
Evelyn O’Callaghan
Evelyn O’Callaghan was educated in Jamaica and lives in Barbados, where she is Professor of West Indian Literature at UWI, Cave Hill. She has published extensively on West Indian literature, particularly on women’s writing and early Caribbean narratives. She is chair of the non-fiction judges for the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize.
Fleur Sinclair
Fleur Sinclair is the owner of the award-winning Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent, England. First opened in 1948, it is a truly independent haven for booklovers of all ages. Fleur is currently President of the Booksellers Association for the UK and Ireland and sits on the UK board of Bookshop.org. She has been on judging panels for the Costa Prize, The Bookseller Industry Awards, Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, the Merky New Writers Prize and the Macmillan Illustration Prize. Before bookselling, Fleur trained in photography and worked in the fashion industry as a photographer’s agent.
Franka Philip
Franka Philip is a Trinidadian journalist and media consultant with 25 years experience in online, radio and print with specialist skills in digital media. She is the co-founder of the media company Trini Good Media.
Hamid Ghany
Hamid Ghany is Professor of Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies and Honorary Professor at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES). He previously served as Head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences (1999-2003), Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (2003-2012) and Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (2017-2021) at The UWI St. Augustine campus. His research interests lie in the areas of constitutional affairs and parliamentary studies. Some of his key publications include Constitutional Development in the Commonwealth Caribbean (Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston and Miami, 2018), “Correcting Arend Lijphart’s Hybrid VI : the case of Guyana” in The Journal of Legislative Studies, (2020) Vol. 26(2) 314-327, “Constitutional Design in the Commonwealth Caribbean” in The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Constitutions by Richard Albert, Derek O’Brien and Se-shauna Wheatle (eds.)(2020: Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York), “Prorogation in Commonwealth Caribbean Countries : An analysis of the relevance of the Miller decision” in The Journal of Legislative Studies, (2024) doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2024.2335711. After his retirement in 2021, he continued to serve The UWI as an Honorary Professor attached to SALISES and continues his academic writing and publications.
Hazel Lynch
Hazel Lynch has a deep passion for the written word. Her desire to bring laughter to the hearts of her readers, is reflected in her writings. Hazel-Ann has no special genre as she does not like to be fitted into any specific box, much like her main character Señor Fluffy. Hazel goes where the wind takes her whenever she puts pen to paper. She has over 75 snail- mail pen-pals worldwide, having started corresponding at the age of 12. Among her pen-pals are persons who are incarcerated as she believes that everyone needs a friend.
Ira Mathur
Ira Mathur is an award-winning India-born Trinidadian multimedia journalist. Her memoir Love the Dark Days (Peepal Tree Press) was the winner of the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction, and shortlisted for the overall prize. It was also named as among the best biographies of 2022 by the UK Guardian. In 2021 she was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award for her unpublished novel Touching Dr Simone. Mathur gained diplomas in creative writing at the University of East Anglia/Guardian with Gillian Slovo and James Scudamore and at The Faber Academy with Maggie Gee. She is currently the Trinidad Guardian’s longest-running columnist and has freelanced for the UK Guardian and the BBC. She is the current President of the Media Association of Trinidad & Tobago (MATT). She has degrees in literature and law, and a Master’s in International Journalism. Her body of journalism is available on www.irasroom.org.
Jason Allen-Paisant
His debut poetry collection Thinking with Trees (Carcanet) won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Poetry, and was a 2021 Irish Times Poetry Book of the Year. His work has been anthologised and featured in Granta, The Guardian, The Poetry Review, Callaloo, New Poetries VIII, PN Review and the BBC. His second collection is Self-Portrait as Othello (Carcanet Press, 2023) and his creative non-fiction book Scanning the Bush will appear in 2024 (Hutchinson Heinemann). He was born in Jamaica and his Doctorate is in Mediaeval and Modern Languages (Oxon) and he is Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory and Creative Writing in the Department of English, American Studies, and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester.
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.
Jesse Buendía Ragbir
Jesse Buendía Ragbir graduated from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine with a BA Spanish and Linguistics. He is currently pursuing a PGDip in TESOL and works as a Spanish tutor at the Centre for Language Learning at UWI. He also works as a freelance Spanish interpreter.
Jeunanne Alkins
Jeunanne Alkins is a prize-winning creative director, author and illustrator who merged her graphic and character-driven storytelling in her three books for children. She has designed and produced community art-education projects and is currently a Design Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.
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.
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 is his debut novel.
Kai Thomas
Kai Thomas is a writer, carpenter, and land steward. He is Afro-Canadian, born and raised in Ottawa, descended from Trinidad and the British Isles. In the Upper Country, his first novel, won the Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Fiction Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
Kavita Ganness
Kavita Ganness has a BA Degree in Communication Studies and Literatures in English (Double Major) and a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. She has published two books, Emerald Journey – A Collection of Poems and The Aloo-Pie Man and Other Stories. She is not only a literary artist but a teacher and a visual artist as well.
She has been a participant in The Cropper Foundation’s 8th Residential Creative Writers’ Workshop in Balandra, Trinidad, with Dr. Funso Aiyejina and Dr. Merle Hodge. She has also mentored with renowned writers such as Earl Lovelace, Dr. Monique Roffey, and Professor Emeritus of Literature Mervyn Morris in Jamaica.
Her writing has been published in esteemed publications such as The Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, The Caribbean Writer, Moko Magazine and Poui: The Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing.
Kellie Magnus
Kellie Magnus is a writer and development consultant from Kingston, Jamaica. Kellie’s passions are creativity and philanthropy. She is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Culture Fund, which supports Caribbean creatives and cultural organisations. Her non-fiction writing has appeared in local and regional publications, and she has authored more than 15 children’s books, several of which are used in Jamaican schools. Kellie is a Kimbilio Fellow who is working on her debut short story collection.
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.
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 distinguished service to Caribbean letters. He is co-editor of Amazing Scenes, the selected journalist of Seepersad Naipaul (2024).
Photo courtesy Mark Lyndersay
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 prize. His previous books include Tropic Tendencies: Rhetoric, Popular Culture, and the Anglophone Caribbean. He is currently based in Trinidad, where he works at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. He is the co-founder of The Caribbean Memory Project, a crowd-sourced cultural heritage research platform: caribbeanmemoryproject.com.
Kevin Jared Hosein
Kevin Jared Hosein is the author, most recently, of Hungry Ghosts, longlisted for the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize. He is also the winner of the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the author of three books previous books, including The Repenters, which was longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. He is a science teacher and lives in Trinidad and Tobago.
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 Dangerous Freedom (Papillote Press, 2020). His second novel Aelred’s Sin (1998) was awarded a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best Book in Canada and the Caribbean (1999). His first novel Witchbroom, a BBC Book At Bedtime, 1993 had its 25th anniversary of publication with a new edition (1992-2017). His other novels are: Light Falling on Bamboo (2012) and Night Calypso (2004). His short stories have featured on BBC Radio 4. His first collection Ballad for the New World, (1994) includes The House of Funerals, awarded the Tom-Gallon Award by The Society of Authors (1986). He is the editor of Golconda Our Voices Our Lives, (2009), a collection of stories, poems and archival photographs collected through a Public History project conducted on the Golconda sugarcane estate in Trinidad (UTT Press, 2009). His most recent book is the poetry collection Looking for Cazabon. His website is: www.lawrencescott.co.uk
Lesley-Ann Wanliss
Lesley-Ann Wanliss is a teacher, developmental editor, writing coach and CEO of L.A. Wanliss Editing and Consultancy. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UWI ST Augustine and was long listed for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and Bocas Emerging Writers Fellowship in 2024. In addition to her poetry chapbook imago, L.A Wanliss is published in various international and Caribbean journals. She is the theatre director of Jamaica National Pantomime 76th show “Channel 876” and the host of Your Best Story a podcast for editors and writers. Additionally, she is a founding member of Caribbean Association of Film Professionals (CAFTPro) and past director of Jamaican Film and Television Association (JAFTA) as Business Development and Initiative Chairperson. Her short film “Bright Sparks” is presently in production.
Linzey Corridon
Linzey Corridon (he/him) is a writer, a Vanier Canada Scholar, and a PhD candidate in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. His critical and creative research can be found in, among other venues, Canada and Beyond, Wasafiri, Sx Salon, Journal of West Indian Literature, and more. His first book project is West of West Indian, which was shortlisted for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in the poetry category, as well as being named one of the best poetry collections of 2024 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Born and raised in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, he currently resides in Hamilton, Canada.
Lisa Allen-Agostini
Lisa Outar
Lisa Outar is an independent scholar and editor who publishes in the fields of Indo-Caribbean literature, Caribbean feminist writing and the connections between the Caribbean and other post-indentureship spaces. From Port Mourant, Guyana, she serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of West Indian Literature and is at work on a manuscript about feminist engagements with religion and folklore in Indo-Caribbean women’s writing. She is co-editor of Indo-Caribbean Feminist Thought: Genealogies, Theories, Enactments, published by Palgrave Macmillan. She was the chair of the nonfiction judges for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize.
Lisa-Marie Foster
Lisa-Marie Foster is a passionate advocate for emotional intelligence and lifelong learning. With a background in psychology and a deep love for children, she believes in the transformative power of storytelling to connect, educate, and inspire.Through her work, Lisa-Marie aims to empower children to embrace their feelings and cultivate empathy for themselves and others, laying the foundation for a more compassionate society.
Marlon James
Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, is the first novel in James’s Dark Star trilogy. His previous novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, was the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, The American Book Award, and The Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize for fiction. He is also the author of the novels John Crow’s Devil and The Book of Night Women. He lives in Minnesota, USA.