T&T writer Lynn Joseph has been short­list­ed for the lead­ing Caribbean lit­er­ary award for young adult writ­ing, Code's Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture.

Two writ­ers, from Ja­maica and Guyana, are al­so in the run­ning for valu­able cash prizes and a pub­lish­ing deal with a Caribbean pub­lish­er that will see 7,500 copies of their nov­els dis­trib­uted to schools, li­braries and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions across the re­gion.

The win­ner will re­ceive CAD$10,000, the run­ners up will re­ceive CAD$7,500 and CAD$5,000 each, a re­lease said.

The top three ti­tles (in al­pha­bet­i­cal or­der) are:

�2 Chil­dren of the Spi­der by Imam Baksh, Guyana (man­u­script to be pub­lished)

�2 Danc­ing in the Rain by Lynn Joseph, T&T (man­u­script to be pub­lished)

�2 The Dol­phin Catch­ers by Di­ana Mc­Caulay, Ja­maica (man­u­script to be pub­lished)

The ju­ry of writ­ers, ed­u­ca­tors and lit­er­a­cy ex­perts praised these man­u­scripts as, "beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten, ex­cit­ing, world­ly, young adult and un­mis­tak­ably Caribbean."

Chil­dren of the Spi­der, Imam Baksh's en­gag­ing first nov­el, cap­tures read­ers with the oth­er­ness of its world, its in­trigue and mys­tery.

Award-win­ning writer Di­ana Mc­Caulay's first young adult nov­el, The Dol­phin Catch­ers, con­jures a vivid set­ting and an en­gag­ing young hero who pulls the read­er in­to the sto­ry. And Danc­ing in the Rain by Lynn Joseph, the au­thor of sev­er­al oth­er suc­cess­ful chil­dren's and young adult books, is grip­ping in its depth of emo­tion, strong plot and re­al­is­tic han­dling of re­la­tion­ships and con­flicts.

The win­ning writ­ers will re­ceive their prizes at a spe­cial cer­e­mo­ny on May 1 at the fifth NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest in Port-of-Spain, which takes place from April 29�May 3. All three will read from their win­ning man­u­scripts in the Best of Code's Burt Award show­case at the lit­er­ary fes­ti­val on May 2.

This is the sec­ond year of Code's Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture. Over the last 12 months, 7,500 copies of the first three win­ning ti­tles–All Over Again by Ad-Ziko Sim­ba Gegele, Mu­si­cal Youth by Joanne C Hill­house and In­ner City Girl by Colleen Smith-Den­nis –were suc­cess­ful­ly dis­trib­uted and some of the win­ning au­thors al­so had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet with young read­ers and as­pir­ing writ­ers of Young Adult fic­tion in Montser­rat, An­tigua, and Bar­ba­dos as part of an au­thor tour.

The Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture was es­tab­lished by Cana­di­an char­i­ty Code and is ad­min­is­tered in Port-of-Spain by the Bo­cas Lit Fest.

More in­fo

For fur­ther de­tails on the Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture, vis­it code­can.org/burt-award-caribbean or con­tact the Bo­cas Lit Fest at in­fo@bo­caslit­fest.com or vis­it the site bo­caslit­fest.com