Lawrence Scott brings Cazabon poems to Bocas Lit Fest

When Lawrence Scott’s debut novel Witchbroom was published in 1992, it heralded an important new voice in Caribbean writing.

Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and serialised on BBC Radio, Witchbroom introduced Scott’s lyrical and mischievous sensibility to a readership who would follow his literary career over the years, as one acclaimed novel followed another, a media release said.

Three decades later, Scott has made a second debut – this time as a poet, with Looking for Cazabon, published in 2024 by Papillote Press. As the author explains in the new book’s preface, the poems were written in parallel to his 2012 novel Light Falling on Bamboo, which reimagines the life of Trinidad’s iconic 19th-century painter Michel-Jean Cazabon.

“I was writing sonnet-like poems in my notebook,” Scott explains in the release. “They were written spontaneously as I began my novel, and seemed a sideways look, or subliminal index to my main work.”

Called “mystical, intimate, and fragile” by poet Roger Robinson, Looking for Cazabon describes the landscapes of Trinidad, past and present, and contemplates the intricacies of friendship and romance.

Former Jamaica poet laureate Mervyn Morris said, Looking for Cazabon offers “a geography of the painter’s journeys, overlaid with the poet’s own concerns … Often registering subtle changes in light, they explore connections between ‘a watercolourist’s palette’ and ‘a poet’s metaphor.'”

Launched last year in London, the book will make its Trinidad and Tobago debut at the Bocas Lit Fest, where Scott will appear alongside a lineup of other poets and writers of all genres.

On May 3, Scott will share the stage with Anthony Vahni Capildeo, whose latest collection Polkadot Wounds is the winner of the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry. The authors will read from their respective books and join a conversation with Michael Kelleher, director of the Windham-Campbell Prizes, based at Yale University.

Like almost all Lit Fest sessions, the event is free. With the theme, Always Coming Home, the festival – marking its milestone 15th year – includes a range of already acclaimed and debut poets, including Anthony Joseph, Yvonne Weekes, Yomi Sode, Alycia Pirmohamed, Andre Bagoo, Anu Lakhan, and Linzey Corridon.

Also making its debut is a new collection of poems by TT’s literary icon Earl Lovelace. Titled The Beginning of a Journey, the book brings together poems written over the course of the author’s life, many being published here for the first time.

May 2

10.30 am-12 pm: Old Fire Station

A conversation with Olive Senior and Amílcar Peter Sanatan, open to all, but aimed at secondary school students

May 3

1-2 pm: AV Room, National Library

Poets Andre Bagoo (Midnight Bestiaries) and Linzey Corridon (West of West Indian) in conversation with Yesha Townsend explore questions of the public and the private, the human and the animal, and the concurrent dangers and delights of intimacy in their new books.

2.30-3.30 pm: Old Fire Station

Anthony Vahni Capildeo – Polkadot Wounds, and Lawrence Scott (Looking for Cazabon) explore journeys through landscapes of memory, history, and longing. In conversation with Michael Kelleher

4-5.30 pm: AV Room, National Library

Members of the Writers Union of TT share their latest work, with special guests Anthony Joseph and Yvonne Weekes

May 4

1.30-2.30 pm: Old Fire Station

Landscapes and journeys both real and imagined, legends and truest of true stories, unfurl in poems of Anu Lakhan –The Proper Care of Knives and Alycia Pirmohamed – Another Way to Split Water. In conversation with Shivanee Ramlochan

3.30-4.30 pm: Old Fire Station

The problems of belonging, alienation, and reconciliation are at the heart of the works of Antonio Michael Downing –Saga Boy and Yomi Ṣode –Manorism. Writing across memoir and formally innovative poetry, these authors explore how the pressures of history, ancestry, and race shape individual possibilities. In conversation with Alake Pilgrim

The full festival programme is online at bocaslitfest.com