IN October, the Bocas Lit Fest will take a literary tour to three European cities, showcasing contemporary Caribbean writing at events in London, Madrid, and Belfast.

"Featuring an exceptional lineup of ten authors, the tour celebrates the diversity and depth of recent Caribbean literature, offering audiences the opportunity to engage with some of the region’s most celebrated voices," Bocas Lit Fest said in a news release on September 25.

It said the initiative follows a highly successful UK tour organised by the Bocas Lit Fest in 2022, with events in five cities across Britain, as well as over a decade of showcasing Caribbean authors and writing at international festivals and events.

The tour kicks off on Friday 11 October at the British Library in London, with an evening of poetry and prose, exploring themes of family, history, and spirituality.

The line-up, the release said, includes Jamaican author Safiya Sinclair, whose memoir How to Say Babylon won the overall OCM Bocas Prize for 2024, and Trinidadian Kevin Jared Hosein, author of Hungry Ghosts, winner of the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction and the 2024 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.

[caption id="attachment_1111397" align="alignnone" width="679"] Monique Roffey -[/caption]

They will be joined by literary icons Lawrence Scott – past winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and author of a new book of poems – TS Eliot Prize winner Anthony Joseph, and Costa Book Award winner Monique Roffey.

Completing the programme is new Jamaican poet Christine Roseeta Walker, who recently published her debut book Coco Island.

The authors will read from their respective books and join conversations moderated by Colin Grant and Fawzia Kane, covering ground ranging from how fiction can explore social and historical tensions to how poetry can transform personal memories into universal stories.

Tickets for both in-person attendance and the British Library livestream are available online, the release said.

A few days later, on October 15, the Bocas tour will move to Casa de América in Madrid, with a free, unticketed evening programme that aims to dismantle familiar stereotypes of the Caribbean.

"Hosein and Sinclair will once again feature, alongside Ingrid Persaud, whose novel Love After Love won the Costa Book Award for Best Debut Novel," the release said.

It said the second event brings together a panel of "extraordinary poets" including Trinidadian Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Jamaican-British Hannah Lowe, and Jamaican Jason Allen-Paisant, who among them have won two Forward Prizes, a TS Eliot Prize, a Costa Book Award, and an OCM Bocas prize for poetry.

"The Madrid visit will also include a networking session for the writers to meet publishers, editors, and journalists, with the aim of promoting more translations of contemporary anglophone Caribbean writing into Spanish," it said.

The final stop on the tour brings the Bocas Lit Fest to the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast on October 17, as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival.

H