OCM Bocas prize opens for 2021

THE region’s most prestigious literary award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean literature, is now open for entries.

The prize is sponsored by One Caribbean Media in TT and is now in its 11th year. It includes a cash award of US$10,000 for the overall winner and US$3,000 each for two genre category winners.

With past winners including both eminent, established authors and talented newcomers, the OCM Bocas Prize is open to Caribbean writers all over the world, who qualify by being of Caribbean birth or citizenship, said a media release.

The cross-genre prize is judged in three categories: poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. The 2021 prize is open to books published in the calendar year 2020. The overall winner is selected from the three category winners and is featured, with shortlisted writers, at the annual literary festival, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

Chairing the distinguished 2021 panel of Caribbean and international judges is the renowned Trinidadian poet Vahni Capildeo, who is joined by nine other regionally and internationally-based writers, academics, and publishing professionals.

Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest, the NGO behind the prize and the annual literary festival, said in the release: “Each year around 100 new books vie for the prize. It lines up the very best books written by Caribbean writers in that period and, over the last decade, has become the most complete catalogue of our contemporary literature.”

For more info about the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize, including closing date: www.bocaslitfest.com

The 2020 NGC Bocas Lit Fest will be a virtual one, from 18-20 September, and is accessible free of charge via www.bocaslitfest.com, facebook.com/bocaslitfest and youtube.com/bocaslitfest.