A stel­lar ar­ray of ac­claimed au­thors will be in the line­up at the 2024 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest, along­side de­but and bud­ding writ­ers of all gen­res.

T&T’s an­nu­al fes­ti­val of books and writ­ers is al­so the An­glo­phone Caribbean’s biggest an­nu­al lit­er­ary event.

Run­ning from Thurs­day to Sun­day, the fes­ti­val—now in its 14th year—in­cludes over 150 au­thors, speak­ers, and per­form­ers, in a packed sched­ule of events. Once again, the fes­ti­val will be based at the Na­tion­al Li­brary in down­town Port-of-Spain, with satel­lite venues around the city.

The packed pro­gramme, with events for adults, teens, and chil­dren, was for­mal­ly launched at a me­dia event last week at the Na­tion­al Li­brary, at­tend­ed by au­thors and per­form­ers along­side fes­ti­val spon­sors and part­ners, in­clud­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the 2024 ti­tle spon­sor, The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (NGC).

Fes­ti­val and Pro­gramme Di­rec­tor Nicholas Laugh­lin em­pha­sised the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest’s fo­cus on am­pli­fy­ing the work of Caribbean writ­ers for a lo­cal and glob­al au­di­ence. “Mak­ing a space for Caribbean sto­ries and voic­es—here at home and in the world at large—is at the very core of our mis­sion, our ethos, our pas­sion, and our every­day work at the Bo­cas Lit Fest,” he said.

“It’s what we do at the fes­ti­val, and it’s why, from the be­gin­ning, we’ve worked so as­sid­u­ous­ly to seek out and de­vel­op new writ­ing tal­ent and in­sti­gate op­por­tu­ni­ties for our writ­ers.”

The line­up of fes­ti­val au­thors an­nounced in­cludes cel­e­brat­ed fig­ures like Hait­ian-Amer­i­can Ed­widge Dan­ti­cat, in her first-ever ap­pear­ance at the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest; Trinida­di­an-Cana­di­an Dionne Brand; In­di­an nov­el­ist Gee­tan­jali Shree, win­ner of the In­ter­na­tion­al Book­er Prize; Bar­ba­di­an Karen Lord and Ja­maican Safiya Sin­clair, both re­cent­ly longlist­ed for The Women’s Prize for Fic­tion and Non-Fic­tion, re­spec­tive­ly; and UK-based Trinida­di­an writer In­grid Per­saud, for­mer win­ner of the Cos­ta Book Award for Best First Nov­el, who will present her lat­est nov­el, hot off the press.

“Fan­tas­tic Fri­day”, a spe­cial pro­gramme of events on April 26, will fo­cus on con­tem­po­rary Caribbean fan­ta­sy, folk­lore, and spec­u­la­tive fic­tion, in­clud­ing read­ings and dis­cus­sion pan­els, work­shops, and a spe­cial open mic event—bring­ing this pop­u­lar genre in­to the heart of the fes­ti­val and ex­plor­ing how con­tem­po­rary au­thors use these gen­res, set in oth­er worlds and oth­er times, to tack­le burn­ing is­sues of the here and now. SFF fans can look for­ward to hear­ing from writ­ers To­bias S Buck­ell, Pre­mee Mo­hamed, Irenosen Oko­jie, and T&T’s own R S A Gar­cia.

Al­so in the fes­ti­val mix: the launch of a posthu­mous book by the late Prof Gor­don Rohlehr and Amaz­ing Scenes, a land­mark col­lec­tion of jour­nal­is­tic writ­ing by Seep­er­sad Naipaul, fa­ther of No­bel lau­re­ate V S Naipaul.

Three “Big Idea” dis­cus­sion pan­els will ask “how the most con­tentious ide­o­log­i­cal con­flicts rack­ing to­day’s world are root­ed in un­sta­ble his­to­ries, why we need to make the study of the past more ac­ces­si­ble, and whether news­pa­pers still have a role in shap­ing in­tel­lec­tu­al de­vel­op­ment.”

Re­turn­ing to the fes­ti­val pro­gramme are long­time favourites like the Ex­tem­po De­bate and Ole Mas com­pe­ti­tion, free Writ­ers First sem­i­nars for bud­ding au­thors, the ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed Stand & De­liv­er open mic se­ries, and a cel­e­bra­tion of the lega­cy of the late T&T writer Michael An­tho­ny, in­clud­ing a screen­ing of the film ver­sion of his beloved nov­el Green Days by the Riv­er.

On Sat­ur­day, all eyes will be on the an­nounce­ment of the win­ner of the 2024 OCM Bo­cas Prize, the most pres­ti­gious award for Caribbean writ­ing, and on Sun­day, the First Cit­i­zens Na­tion­al Po­et­ry Slam fi­nals will bring the fes­ti­val to a close.

Mean­while, a full pro­gramme of fun ac­tiv­i­ties for younger au­di­ences kicked off ear­li­er in March, as the NGC Chil­dren’s Sto­ry­telling Car­a­van vis­it­ed venues across T&T.

On Thurs­day, the main NGC Chil­dren’s Bo­cas Lit Fest will open with two full days of ac­tiv­i­ties at City Hall Au­di­to­ri­um, in­clud­ing sto­ry­telling, per­for­mances, and hands-on work­shops, mov­ing to the Chil­dren’s Li­brary wing of the Na­tion­al Li­brary for the fes­ti­val week­end.

The 2024 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest sched­ule is now avail­able on­line at https://bo­caslit­fest.com, with fre­quent news of Bo­cas Lit Fest events and projects post­ed on so­cial me­dia via Face­book, Twit­ter, and In­sta­gram @bo­caslit­fest

The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go is the ti­tle spon­sor of the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest; OCM, First Cit­i­zens, the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, and the British Coun­cil are the main spon­sors; Massy Foun­da­tion, UWI, and the JB Fer­nan­des Memo­r­i­al Trust are spon­sors.