“Making a space for Caribbean stories and voices – here at home and in the world at large – is at the very core of our mission, our ethos, our passion, and our everyday work at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest,” the festival’s programme director Nicholas Laughlin said on its website.
Over its 14-year existence the festival has given greater visibility to the Caribbean’s established and aspiring authors.
[caption id="attachment_1079655" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Bocas Lit Fest festival and programme director Nicholas Laughlin at the media launch of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest at the National Library, Port of Spain, on March 20. - PHOTO COURTESY NGC[/caption]
This year’s events began on April 26, starting with a discussion with Vincentian-Canadian author H Nigel Thomas about his 1993 debut novel, Spirits in the Dark. That was done in partnership with the Canadian High Commission and was held at the Writers Centre, Alcazar Street, Port of Spain.
[caption id="attachment_1079662" align="alignnone" width="960"] This year’s NGC Bocas Lit Fest began on April 25, starting with a discussion with Vincentian-Canadian author H Nigel Thomas about his 1993 debut novel, Spirits in the Dark. -[/caption]
Celebrating Caribbean LGBTQI+ Voices returned to the festival’s calendar and was an evening of poetry and music from some of Trinidad and Tobago’s LGBTQI+ artistes.
On April 26, Laughlin will welcome people to the festival at a ceremony at the Old Fire Station, Port of Spain, from 10 am.
The Bocas Lit Fest has dubbed today as Fantastic Friday. Today’s events will also include Barbadian author Karen Lord whose latest novel The Blue, Beautiful World was recently longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kevin Jared Hosein, 2024 Winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction; Caribbean-Canadian Premee Mohamed; Jamaican-Canadian Zalika Reid-Benta; and Nigerian-British Irenosen Okojie, founder of the Black to the Future festival in the UK.
Other Fantastic Friday events include writing workshops – one aimed specifically at secondary-school students and a New Talent Showcase event featuring four up-and-coming TT authors of the fantasy genre: Dixie-Ann Belle, Jolanda Charles, Janine Mendes-Franco and Vindhar Suraj, the Lit Fest said.
The We Lit! Travelling Journal Showcase is a feature of Fantastic Friday. The exhibition will spotlight the writing and storytelling abilities of secondary-school students and a chapbook will be launched, the Lit Fest said in a media release.
More than 150 performers, writers and speakers from TT are expected to participate in this year’s festival, the Commonwealth Foundation Creatives Facebook page said.
[caption id="attachment_1079660" align="alignnone" width="956"] Trinidad-born Canadian poet and novelist Dionne Brand is among the special guests at Bocas Lit Fest. -[/caption]
Haitian-American novelist and short-story writer Edwidge Danticat is among the special guests at Bocas Lit Fest 2024, along with Trinidad-born Canadian poet and novelist Dionne Brand, among others.
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