Ira Mathur, Celeste Mohammed go Writer to Writer

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest’s Writer to Writer series is back, this time featuring two winners of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

On December 16, from 3.30 pm, authors Ira Mathur and Celeste Mohammed will take centre stage for an informal and intimate conversation at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St Clair.

Festival and programme manager for the Bocas Lit Fest, Shivanee Ramlochan said, in a media release, “The idea is to allow readers and audience members a peek behind the literary curtain.”

“Ira and Celeste have produced works of non-fiction and fiction that have become deeply important to our national and Caribbean consciousness, as impactful as any books being lauded in international spheres. Writer to Writer provides a unique chance to peer into each author’s innermost process, in as convivial an atmosphere as you can imagine.”

Mohammed, whose novel-in-stories Pleasantview won the overall 2022 OCM Bocas Prize, expressed delight at being paired with Mathur for their upcoming conversation.

“Ira interviewed me during my first NGC Bocas Lit Fest, at a major inflection point in my career,” said Mohammed, who is now working on a creative nonfiction project. “So much has changed in both our writing journeys since then. I look forward to catching up and trading notes about what often feels like the loneliest of wars: the writerly battle with self-doubt, particularly when rendering real lives upon the page.”

Mathur, winner of the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction for her debut memoir Love the Dark Days, also recalls that pivotal interview.

“I was inspired to write when I first interviewed Celeste Mohammed on her award-winning short stories at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in 2016 so it feels like serendipity and a special gift for us to sit across from one another now as Bocas awardees. We are Caribbean authors whose work has been recognised by our own people, and we speak of the alchemy of our words and the world we live in.”

The first NGC Bocas Lit Fest Writer to Writer event, held in October, featured novelists Kevin Jared Hosein and Breanne Mc Ivor, and was launched to a packed and attentive audience at The Writers Centre, the release said.

The event is free and open to all.

The Writers Centre, NGC Bocas Lit Fest headquarters, is also home to Paper Based Bookshop, and a branch of Full Bloom Coffee.

The bookshop, which specialises in Caribbean literature in all genres, will have copies of Pleasantview and Love the Dark Days for sale during the event.

Full Bloom Coffee will also be open, serving its selection of pastries and hot drinks for sale.

Attendees are also encouraged to bring their copies of the authors’ books for autographs.