Myriam JA Chancy cops 2025 OCM Bocas Prize

HAITIAN-CANADIAN-AMERICAN author Myriam JA Chancy is the overall winner of the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize!

Chancy’s Village Weavers copped the coveted 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature which comes with a cash award of US$10,000, sponsored by One Caribbean Media Ltd.

Village Weavers is Chancy’s ninth book, and was published by the independent press Tin House.

The novel was described by the prize judges as “a compellingly ambitious and beautifully executed narrative.”

Village Weavers, opening in Haiti in the 1940s, tells the story of two girls from very different backgrounds, whose friendship is changed irrevocably by the unveiling of a family secret. It follows them across countries, oceans, and decades, showing how the events of their shared childhood shape their entire lives.

Chief judge for the prize Jamaican author Erna Brodber made the announcement at the award ceremony on May 3, during this year’s Bocas Lit Fest.

The ceremony also honoured poetry winner Anthony Vahni Capildeo (for their book Polkadot Wounds) and nonfiction winner Dionne Brand (for her book-length essay Salvage: Readings from the Wreck).

The ceremony, held at UTT’s APA Theatre 1, also honoured the winner of the 2025 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters, The Journal of West Indian Literature.

Chief judge Erna Brodber was joined on the final judging panel for the OCM Bocas Prize by Anguillan-American writer Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Guyanese-British academic Denise deCaires Narain, and Barbados-born academic Rinaldo Walcott.

In a news release on May 2, the Bocas Lit Fest said, “2025 is the milestone 15th year of the OCM Bocas Prize, first awarded in 2011. This is the first time the overall prize has been won by a Haiti-born author. Chancy’s previous book, the essay collection Harvesting Haiti: Reflections on Unnatural Disasters, was shortlisted for the nonfiction category of the prize in 2024.“

It said she is also the past winner of a Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

“Chancy is a compelling storyteller,” the judges write, “deftly keeping the focus on her key characters while also indicating the complex political contexts in which they live… Chancy’s narrative voice is quietly poetic throughout, punctuated by intensely lyrical descriptions and arresting metaphors (such as that of the weaver birds from which the book gets its title).”

The 2025 Bocas Lit Fest concludes its four-day programme on May 4, with a programme of events at the National Library.

The festival’s grand finale is the 2025 First Citizens National Poetry Slam, at the National Academy for the Performing Arts. See www.bocaslitfest.com for further programme details.

OCM, First Citizens, the JB Fernandes Memorial Trust, and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts are main sponsors of the 2025 Bocas Lit Fest; the British Council, the Windham-Campbell Prizes, Murphy Clarke, the Massy Foundation, and The UWI are sponsors.