Books by three writ­ers from T&T have made the short­list for the 2019 OCM Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture, spon­sored by One Caribbean Me­dia.

This is the first time in the his­to­ry of the prize, first award­ed in 2011, that writ­ers from a sin­gle Caribbean coun­try have won all three genre cat­e­gories, form­ing the short­list for the over­all award.

The three books will now en­ter the fi­nal round of judg­ing and vie for the over­all award of US$10,000, to be pre­sent­ed on May 4 dur­ing the 2019 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest (1 to 5 May) in Port-of-Spain.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease, Doe Songs (Peepal Tree Press), the de­but book by Danielle Boodoo-For­tuné, is the win­ner in the po­et­ry cat­e­go­ry. The col­lec­tion, write the prize judges, “marks the ar­rival of an ex­tra­or­di­nary voice. In po­ems haunt­ed by Ovid, Danielle Boodoo-For­tuné in­ves­ti­gates the per­son­al and the po­lit­i­cal, de­ploy­ing a stun­ning range of im­agery and themes. Moth­ers and daugh­ters, hunters and the hunt­ed, met­al and fire meet in this daz­zling con­stel­la­tion of ar­che­types that moves us to a new un­der­stand­ing of the Caribbean land­scape and its re­al­i­ties. An un­for­get­table book, as dul­cet as it is ruth­less”.

The win­ner in the fic­tion cat­e­go­ry is the nov­el The­o­ry (Knopf Cana­da), by Dionne Brand, born in Trinidad and res­i­dent in Toron­to. In the judges' words, “Its mo­ti­vat­ing en­er­gy can be boiled down to the ques­tion the pro­tag­o­nist asks her­self: 'Why am I here now and what is my next move?' This ques­tion is posed by an aca­d­e­m­ic philoso­pher whose the­sis, so bril­liant and all-en­com­pass­ing that it can nev­er be com­plet­ed, has en­tire­ly sub­sumed her life. Though she is a les­bian woman of Caribbean back­ground, this play­ful, clever, sly, fun­ny, hon­est, self-re­flex­ive nar­ra­tor takes all such iden­ti­ty mark­ers en­tire­ly for grant­ed. Brand res­olute­ly re­fus­es easy pieties, in­sist­ing in­stead on her 'oth­er­wise an­gled' vi­sion—a clear-eyed and un­sen­ti­men­tal ob­jec­tiv­i­ty.”

And in the non-fic­tion cat­e­go­ry, the win­ner is High Mas: Car­ni­val and the Po­et­ics of Caribbean Cul­ture (Uni­ver­si­ty Press of Mis­sis­sip­pi), by Kevin Ado­nis Browne. “Im­pres­sive in scope, lyri­cal in style, and in­no­v­a­tive in form, High Mas im­press­es both as a work of lit­er­a­ture and art,” write the judges. “Browne's ex­cep­tion­al ex­plo­ration of mas blends pho­to­graph­ic es­say, es­say, mem­oir, po­et­ry, polemic, and prose po­et­ry to trans­for­ma­tive ef­fect. Go­ing be­yond the his­to­ry and nar­ra­tive, Browne peers in­to the soul of a peo­ple with whom he feels a deep kin­ship. The re­sult is a rad­i­cal, genre-de­fy­ing trib­ute to a cher­ished tra­di­tion in the finest tra­di­tion of lit­er­ary non-fic­tion.”

The fi­nal cross-genre judg­ing pan­el for the prize, chaired by the cel­e­brat­ed writer Ma­ri­na Warn­er, in­cludes po­et Ge­of­frey Philp, schol­ar, and writer Jane Bryce, and jour­nal­ist and ed­i­tor Gary Younge.

Past win­ners of the OCM Bo­cas Prize are Jen­nifer Rahim, for Cur­few Chron­i­cles (2018); Kei Miller, for Au­gus­town (2017); Olive Se­nior, for The Pain Tree (2016), Vladimir Lu­cien, for Sound­ing Ground (2015); Robert An­toni, for As Flies to What­less Boys (2014); Monique Rof­fey, for Arch­i­pel­ago (2013); and Earl Lovelace for Is Just a Movie (2012). No­bel Lau­re­ate Derek Wal­cott was the win­ner of the in­au­gur­al prize in 2011, for his po­et­ry col­lec­tion White Egrets.

The award cer­e­mo­ny for the OCM Bo­cas Prize is a high­light of the 2019 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest. The fes­ti­val ti­tle spon­sor is the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny, the lead spon­sor is First Cit­i­zens, main spon­sors are the Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts and One Caribbean Me­dia. Massy Foun­da­tion, the Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board, and UWI are spon­sors.

The 2019 OCM Bo­cas Prize short­list

PO­ET­RY

Doe Songs, by Danielle Boodoo-For­tuné (Peepal Tree Press)

FIC­TION

The­o­ry, by Dionne Brand (Knopf Cana­da)

NON-FIC­TION

High Mas: Car­ni­val and the Po­et­ics of Caribbean Cul­ture, by Kevin Ado­nis Browne (Uni­ver­si­ty Press of Mis­sis­sip­pi)