Bocas Lit Fest accepting entries for 2025 OCM prize

THE Bocas Lit Fest is now accepting submissions for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

In a news release on September 10, Bocas Lit Fest said the 2025 round of the region’s most coveted literary award has opened for entries.

The prize, it said, is now in its milestone 15th year.

It comes with a cash award of US$10,000 for the overall winner, and US$3,000 each for two other genre category winners and is sponsored by One Caribbean Media.

"The OCM Bocas Prize, running since 2011, recognises the best books published each year by writers of Caribbean birth or citizenship," the release said.

Past winners include Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, Jamaican poet laureate Olive Senior, and TT novelist Earl Lovelace, as well as early-career writers like the 2024 winner, poet and memoirist Safiya Sinclair, author of How to Say Babylon.

The release said, "The cross-genre prize is judged in the categories of poetry, fiction and literary nonfiction. "The 2025 prize is open to books published in the calendar year 2024. The overall winner will be selected from the three genre-category winners and announced and featured at the 2025 Bocas Lit Fest."

“For readers and writers across the Caribbean, the announcement of the OCM Bocas Prize is something to anticipate and celebrate,” said Nicholas Laughlin, festival and programme director of the Bocas Lit Fest.

“Over the years, Caribbean writers have won numerous international awards, and our literary achievement is justly recognised around the world. But the OCM Bocas Prize is unique – sponsored, administered and awarded at home in the region. It is our prize, and the Bocas Lit Fest is proud to be its organiser, just as we’re deeply grateful to One Caribbean Media for their sponsorship and commitment over the past decade and a half.”

Eligibility:

To be eligible for entry for the 2025 prize, a book must:

Have been first published in the calendar year 2024 (January 1-December 31)

Have been written by a single author who either holds Caribbean citizenship or was born in the Caribbean (this must be verified by the publisher), regardless of current place of residence

Have been written by an author who is living on December 31, 2024

Have been written and first published in English originally – translations are not eligible;

Be a new work, previously unpublished in book form (though collections including poems, stories, essays, or other short pieces that have individually appeared in print in periodicals or anthologies are eligible).

For full information about the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize, including deadline dates and eligibility and submission guidelines, visit www.bocaslitfest.com/awards/ocm.