New online opportunities for writers

WRITERS LAB, a safe space to workshop writing in one-on-one sessions, launches the Bocas Lit Fest’s 2020 digital writer development programme.

Writers Lab is a series of one-on-one online sessions via Zoom facilitated by leading writers. In the first edition, Caribbean Non-Fiction with award-winning, non-fiction writer Kevin Adonis Browne, writers seeking feedback on current non-fiction writing projects will receive two individual, personalised one-hour sessions over June and July.

Registration is now open to all Caribbean writers, and Browne, who is also an academic, is generously donating his stipend to the creation of two bursaries for writers who have attended previous Bocas Lit Fest workshops at The Writers Centre in Port of Spain, said a media release.

Writers Lab is just one of the unique and varied writer development elements on offer. In July, writer, performer and teacher Elisha Bartels’ free webinar series How to Read your Work for an Audience, carries the option to follow up with limited, paid, one-on-one Zoom consultations. This series aims to equip writers with the important skill of reading their own work in public, from good posture and rhythm to vocal dynamics and editing your own work for various settings, the release said.

The 2013 winner of the OCM Bocas Prize Monique Roffey returns on June 27 with her popular interactive literary craft studio. This time her subject is, Beyond the First Draft: Setting the Scene.

In partnership with the 2020 winner of the Johnson and Amoy Achong Writers Prize Amanda Choo Quan, the Bocas Lit Fest will also offer a special, free webinar series connecting writers with industry professionals in other places, namely the USA and the UK.

In August-September Writers Lab returns with a poetry edition, led by critically-acclaimed TT poet Shivanee Ramlochan giving full attention to poets sounding out and developing their work in progress.

Workshops will take place, as usual, during the annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest, September 18-20, and the online writer development series continues till the end of 2020. The festival's title sponsor is the National Gas Company.

The project is supported by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts. Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly endorsed the initiative, saying, “Current circumstances remind us that our resilience is a function of our ingenuity. It is this ingenuity that continues to drive the sustainability and relevance of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. It keeps reinventing itself to ensure its permanency.

“We are delighted to be directly associated with its developmental ethos. As the ministry responsible for development within all spheres of the cultural sector, our strategic alignment with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest ensures the identification and recognition of new talent, facilitates mentorship and supports learning.”

For more info and to register for the Caribbean Non-Fiction edition of Writers Lab: www.bocaslitfest.com/writerscentre/workshops. Find monthly updates on the Bocas Lit Fest digital writer development programme and other online events at www.bocaslitfest.com/2020/events/.