T&T writ­ers who have earned lo­cal, re­gion­al, and in­ter­na­tion­al ac­co­lades will present their fic­tion and non-fic­tion at Pa­per Based Book­shop’s Evening of Tea and Read­ings, on June 1 at 5:30 pm at The Chan­cel­lor Ho­tel. 

Kevin Jared Ho­sein, 2024 OCM Bo­cas Prize Fic­tion win­ner, will read from his his­tor­i­cal nov­el, Hun­gry Ghosts, which ex­am­ines the bru­tal­i­ties and mys­ter­ies of life in a 1940s In­do-Trinida­di­an bar­rack com­mu­ni­ty. Hun­gry Ghosts re­cent­ly earned a spot on the 2024 short­list for The Wal­ter Scott Prize for His­tor­i­cal Fic­tion, worth £25,000 to the win­ner.

Vaneisa Baksh, au­thor of Son of Grace, a bi­og­ra­phy of his­to­ry-mak­ing crick­eter and leader Sir Frank Wor­rell, will present a read­ing. Son of Grace was short­list­ed for The 2024 Crick­et So­ci­ety and MCC Book of the Year Award, and for The 2024 Charles Tyr­whitt/The Sun­day Times Crick­et Book of the Year.

Mak­ing his Pa­per Based Evening of Tea and Read­ings de­but is vet­er­an jour­nal­ist Andy John­son, who will of­fer scenes from his brand-new au­to­bi­og­ra­phy, From Los Ba­jos to the World, which charts John­son’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life in the me­dia fra­ter­ni­ty.

Bar­bara Lal­la, Pro­fes­sor Emeri­ta, Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture at UWI St Au­gus­tine, will read from her lat­est nov­el, By Such a Part­ing Light, ex­plor­ing in­ter­gen­er­a­tional re­la­tion­ships height­ened by COVID-19. 

Round­ing out the pre­sen­ters on June 1 is Ce­leste Mo­hammed, win­ner of the over­all 2022 OCM Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture, who will share from her de­but non-fic­tion work, A Dif­fer­ent En­er­gy: Women in Caribbean Oil and Gas. Hait­ian au­thor Myr­i­am J A Chancy praised A Dif­fer­ent En­er­gy, call­ing it “sober­ing and il­lu­mi­nat­ing. A must-read for any­one won­der­ing where the women are in oil and where they could be.”

Si­mone Camps, man­ag­er of Pa­per Based Book­shop, ex­pressed en­thu­si­asm for the up­com­ing event, say­ing, “I’m de­light­ed for our first Evening of Tea and Read­ings of 2024, to be held at the beau­ti­ful Chan­cel­lor Ho­tel. Still on a lit­er­ary high from the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest at the end of April, our book­shop team is pleased to wel­come these five lo­cal writ­ers who have made their mark on the read­ing and writ­ing land­scape.”

Book­ings are es­sen­tial. Tick­ets can be pur­chased at Pa­per Based Book­shop, The Writ­ers Cen­tre, 14 Al­cazar Street, St Clair, by call­ing the book­shop at 628-3197, via What­sApp at 359-7042, or by email­ing in­fo@pa­per­based­book­shop.com

The event

An Evening of Tea and Read­ings at Pa­per Based

June 1, 2024, 5:30 pm 

The Chan­cel­lor Ho­tel

Fea­tur­ing read­ings from Vaneisa Baksh, Kevin Jared Ho­sein, Andy John­son, Bar­bara Lal­la, Ce­leste Mo­hammed.