The new Bocas Emerging Writers Fellowships have 20 early-career Caribbean writers vying for two 2022 fellowships to advance or complete a literary work.
From over 100 applicants in seven different territories, the 20 shortlisted writers now stand a chance of securing a six-month fellowship in poetry or prose. The winners will be mentored by an established author, participate in an intensive online workshop hosted by the UK literary organisation Arvon, receive a cash award of TT$10,000, and have their work published as a chapbook by Peekash Press.
The 2022 Bocas Emerging Writers Fellowships were launched last November, during A Map to the Door of No Return at 20: A Gathering, a virtual conference hosted by Canada’s York University to mark the 20th anniversary of TT-born author Dionne Brand’s landmark book.
The fellowships are for writers working in innovative, genre-crossing forms, exploring themes of individual and personal identity, and ideas of belonging, displacement, and home, as does A Map to the Door of No Return.
“Caribbean Lit is in good hands,” remarked judge Ann-Margaret Lim of Jamaica. “Good, serious writers from the Caribbean, unafraid of subjects traditionally ‘taboo’ in their countries, are writing their truths, and doing so beautifully and as well as any international poet or fiction writer…. The voices are not stilted or affected. They are bold, true, and indeed shaped by skill and attention.”
Lim, whose book of poems Kingston Buttercup was shortlisted for the 2017 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, was joined in judging the shortlist by the winner of the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Nonfiction, Andre Bagoo (for his essay collection The Undiscovered Country).
[caption id="attachment_940594" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Alexandra Stewart. -[/caption]
The two fellowship winners will be announced in late March, and will present their work in progress during the 2022 NGC Bocas Lit Fest (April 28 to May 1).
The fellowships are made possible by donations from Canisia Lubrin, winner of the overall 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature; Dionne Brand, winner of the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize in the fiction category; Christina Sharpe, judge for the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize in the fiction category; and Allyson Holder, Friend of the Bocas Lit Fest.
Poetry
Topher Allen (Jamaica)
Xan-Xi Bethel (Bahamas)
Neala Bhagwansingh (TT)
Johanna Gibson (BVI)
Ubaldimir Guerra (Belize)
Jannine Horsford (TT)
Jay T John (TT)
Gillian Moor (TT)
Ruth Osman (Guyana/TT)
Allyson Weekes (TT)
Prose
Tracy Assing (TT)
Heather Barker (Barbados)
Ayrïd Chandler (TT)
Rachael Amanda Espinet (TT)
Amir Denzel Hall (TT)
Michelle John (TT)
Garvin Tafari Parsons (TT)
Rajiv Ramkhalawan (TT)
Ark Ramsay (Barbados)
Alexandra Stewart (TT)
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