Three T&T writers on Bocas prize longlist

Writers from seven Caribbean countries are on the longlist for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Three are from T&T—poet Vahni Capildeo and novelists Monique Roffey and Lawrence Scott. The prize is presented as part of T&T’s annual literary festival, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, which takes place in April. The longlist, to be announced by the judges today, covers poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction.

The judges read 40 books entered for the prize, which is open to works by Caribbean writers published in the previous calendar year, and comes with an award of US$10,000. The winners in the three genre categories will be announced on March 17, and the prize will be presented on April 27, during the third annual Bocas Lit Fest in Port-of-Spain. 

The 2013 judges include a range of distinguished Caribbean and international writers, editors and scholars. The poetry panel, chaired by Bahamian Marion Bethel, also includes Guyana-born Cyril Dabydeen and Trinidadian Anson Gonzalez. UK-based Barbadian historian Richard Drayton chairs the non-fiction panel, which also includes scholars Antonia MacDonald-Smythe of St Lucia and Sir Howard Fergus of Montserrat.

Jamaican literary scholar Michael Bucknor is chairman of the fiction panel, joined by prize-winning author Robert Antoni and literary agent Elise Dillsworth. The final judging panel is headed by the celebrated Jamaican writer Olive Senior. For further information, visit www.bocaslitfest.com/ocm-bocas-prize.html

Bocas Prize longlist:

Poetry
Dark and Unaccustomed Words, Vahni Capildeo (T&T)
Fault Lines, Kendel Hippolyte (St Lucia)
South Eastern Stages, Anthony Kellman (Barbados)

Special mention:
The Festival of Wild Orchid, Margaret Ann Lim (Jamaica) 

Fiction
This is How You Lose Her, Junot Díaz (Dominican Republic/USA)
Archipelago, Monique Roffey (T&T)
Light Falling on Bamboo, Lawrence Scott (T&T)
God Carlos, Anthony C Winkler (Jamaica)

Non-fiction
The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race, Jemima Pierre (Haiti/USA)
The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays, Rupert Roopnaraine (Guyana)
Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire, Andrea Stuart (Barbados)

Special mention:
Abolition and Plantation Management in Jamaica, 1807–1838, Dave St Aubyn Gosse (Jamaica)
Ismith Khan: The Man and his Work, Roydon Salick (T&T)