Borel gets People’s choice prize

DESERVING WINNER: Michelle Borel, author of Soulspection: A Collection of Poetry, which won the Newsday/NGC Bocas Lit Fest People’s Choice award. She received the winner’s cheque on Thursday at the National Library in Port of Spain.
DESERVING WINNER: Michelle Borel, author of Soulspection: A Collection of Poetry, which won the Newsday/NGC Bocas Lit Fest People’s Choice award. She received the winner’s cheque on Thursday at the National Library in Port of Spain.

MICHELLE Borel asked God “what opportunity could there be” for her to be able to share her work with others. That opportunity came in the form of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest/Newsday T&T People’s Choice Book of the Year.

She said that before being invited to put forward a nomination, she had a thought and spoke to God about it. She asked, “What opportunity could there be that I could share what you’ve guided me to share with others?”

Borel, announced as the people’s choice winner on June 5, was presented with her $5,000 prize on Thursday. The presentation took place at the National Library’s fourth floor boardroom, Abercromby and Hart Streets, Port of Spain. Ken Chee Hing Newsday’s daily editor presented Borel with the cheque.

Borel’s Soulspection: A Collection of Poetry got 50 per cent of the 2,054 final votes, claiming the winning spot over five other finalists, a June 5 Newsday article said. “The competition was launched on December 15 last year and closed on June 1,” it added.

There were initially 39 nominees for the prize which was then narrowed to six, by popular vote. From that six, the winner was chosen also by popular vote. The June 5 Newsday article said, “The poetry collection, says the book description on www.bocaslitfest.com, has ‘writing in a variation of styles from haiku to diamante, Borel uses her words to paint pictures and evoke emotion.

She whispers to her readers, telling them they are not alone in their pain. To live this life to the fullest, time must be spent on introspection and retrospection – down to the very depths of your soul.’ For the radio personality, the 39 nominees “were all winners.”

It also seemed serendipity played its hand in Borel submitting her work to the competition since “just a week after” posing her question to God, “I got an e-mail from National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) to come in for a presentation.” That presentation was about the Newsday/Bocas Lit Fest’s T&T People’s Choice Book of the Year.

At the presentation, “what I found strange while I sat there, (was that) the nomination process, the very first part, closed on my husband’s birthday, the first round ended on my daughter’s birthday and the final round ended on my son’s birthday. And I thought you know what why not give it a chance.

“Either way I would still get the opportunity to speak to people about my book and even if I don’t get the opportunity to speak to them about my book...it would still give some attention to all the other books. So I decided to be a part of it.”

The prize was a collaborative effort between Newsday, the Bocas Lit Fest and NALIS. For Danielle Delon, the children’s festival director at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the media and national library are “two key entities in helping the fulfil the mission of the People’s Choice prize: that is to generate a greater interest in reading by promoting local writing and to get more people talking about books and buying them too.”

LET’S TALK POETRY: Newsday daily editor Ken Chee Hing discusses Soulspection: A Collection of Poetry with its author - Newsday/NGH Bocas Lit Fest People’s Choice winner Michelle Borel while NALIS executive director Katherine Romain, left, and NGC Children’s Bocas Lit Fest director Danielle Delon look on at the National Library in Port of Spain.

Chee Hing, bringing greetings on behalf of Newsday, said the company “believes that (an) educated and enlightened society is the bedrock of a strong and vibrant democracy. Therefore, we are very happy to partner with NGC Bocas Lit Fest by sponsoring this People’s Choice award because we believe it is important for members of the public to read and re-educate themselves in this ever-changing, ever evolving world that we live in.”

Catherine Romain, NALIS’ executive director said given the authority’s responsibility “to preserve, promote and exploit Trinidad and Tobago’s heritage information” it was “very, very heart-warming” to see “the response to this initiative which would help to cement the work of local authors and to highlight works, which would otherwise, have gone unnoticed.”

Newsday, NALIS and the Bocas Lit Fest joined many other countries who appreciate the need to preserve a country’s literary heritage, Romain said.

But for Borel, the win is a lesson to herself and others that “anything you focus and put your mind to, you have the ability to do.”

“And to think I was a child growing up and was diagnosed with dyslexia and here I am now, an author...someone who had problems with words and spelling,” she said.

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