A Nobel laureate, a MacArthur "genius" fellow, and a first-time author are finalists for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.Edwidge Danticat, Derek Walcott, and Tiphanie Yanique are finalists for major regional literary award. On March 28, the prize judges announced the winners of the three genre categories, who are now finalists for the overall prize, which comes with an award of US$10,000. St Lucian Nobel laureate Derek Walcott is the poetry category winner, for his book White Egrets, which has already won the prestigious TS Eliot Prize. The OCM Bocas Prize judges call it "a superb collection...that speaks for all of us who live and love and can't ever take our eyes off the wonder of the world around us."
Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, who was previously given a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Award" in 2009, is the non-fiction category winner for the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize, for her essay collection Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. The judges describe the book as "thoughtful, interesting, and varied in its insights, often moving, and beautifully written, in a passionate yet restrained style."
The fiction category winner is How to Escape a Leper Colony, the debut short fiction collection by Tiphanie Yanique of the US Virgin Islands. "Extremely touching but never sentimental," say the judges, "this is a wonderfully engaging gathering of stories by a genuinely gifted writer."
The overall winner of the 2011 OCM Bocas Prize will be announced on April 30, during the first annual Bocas Lit Fest in Port-of-Spain (April 28 – May 1). The festival schedule includes readings from all three shortlisted books, and Tiphanie Yanique will participate in the programme. The OCM Bocas Prize, presented for the first time in 2011, is open to books by Caribbean writers published in the previous calendar year. The 2011 judges include a range of distinguished writers and scholars from the Caribbean and its diaspora, headed by Arnold Rampersad. The schedule includes the Republic Bank / KFC Children's Bocas Lit Fest, a full programme of events for younger readers.
• Full details of T&T's new literary festival on: www.bocaslitfest.com.
The 2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature shortlist
Poetry
White Egrets, by Derek Walcott (St Lucia).
Fiction
How to Escape a Leper Colony, by Tiphanie Yanique (US Virgin Islands.)
Non-fiction
Create Dangerously, by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti/USA).