Bios & Bookmarks returns on Sunday

Bios & Bookmarks, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest’s online reading series featuring Caribbean authors is back for a second season on August 9.

Building up to the virtual presentation of literary festival, September 18-20, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest returns with season two of Bios & Bookmarks, the weekly literary conversation that is livestreamed on Facebook, 3-4 pm every Sunday between August 9 and September 13.

Kicking off this season’s cast of authors is Barbadian speculative fiction writer Karen Lord, winner of the Frank Collymore Literary Award for 2008 and a slew of genre awards. In 2011 she was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize - Fiction.

Also in the mix is Trinidadian Roger Robinson, 2019 winner of the highly prestigious TS Eliot Prize and the 2020 Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize for his second collection of poems, A Portable Paradise. Robinson, who was a featured author at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in 2013, was longlisted for the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for his debut collection, The Butterfly Hotel.

Other writers lined up to join this virtual stage over the next six weeks include multiple award-winning Jamaican author and environmental activist Diana McCaulay, winner of the 2014 Bocas Lit Fest’s Hollick Arvon Prize, and also Trinidadian Jeanelle Frontin, author of The YaraStar Trilogy, winner of the 2019 CODE Burt Award.

Launched in the midst of the coronavirus lockdown period back in April, Bios & Bookmarks was conceived as a way of bringing the Caribbean’s favourite writers of new and award-winning books closer to their local, regional and international audiences.

NGC Bocas Lit Fest director Marina Salandy-Brown says, “As our global health pandemic progresses, and we move deeper into our new normal, we’re reminded of how much words matter; how much language, literature and the expression of ideas help sustain us in difficult and isolating times.” She added, “Our goal is to allow folks to celebrate Caribbean writing wherever they are in the world: we started strong, and are thrilled to continue.”

All are invited to join the NGC Bocas Lit Fest for this free event, via the Bocas Lit Fest Facebook Live platform. The session will be accessible to non-Facebook users via an external link, and will be archived on Facebook for those unable to join in real time. www.bocalitfest.com