Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival awards 2023 longlists announced.

The longlists for the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival’s literary awards were named on Monday, July 31, 2023.

The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) is a celebration of culture as expressed through the pen of the storyteller and the voice of the poet founded in 2019. It is designed to facilitate vibrant conversations about Caribbean identity via a series of readings of classic and contemporary stories, podcasts, and conversations.

One of the festival’s most popular features are the writing competitions geared towards unearthing and encouraging the distinctive voice and story of the Caribbean-descended writer and expanding the creative writing landscape of Caribbean literature. The two are the BCLF Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize and BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean. Patrice Grell Yursik and Akhim Alexis won the awards in 2021 while Yveka Pierre and Alexia Tolas took the honours last year.

The longlists for the awards were announced on Monday and they are;

BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean

Judges: Cherie Jones and Sharma Taylor 

Longlist

• The Old Monsters, Judy Raymond (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Sponder Money, Ethan Knowles (Bahamas)
• Pebbles The Sane, Joey Bartlett (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Immisible, Rajiv Ramkhalawan (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Jumbie Girl, Michelle John (Trinidad & Tobago)
• The Ashes They Left Behind, Christina Katrina Smith (SVG)
• Carambola, Brandon McIvor (Trinidad & Tobago)
• White Noise, Jacinthe Howard (Barbados)
• The Rumour, Joanne Hillhouse (Antigua & Barbuda)
• PG 13, Jamal Gavin LaRose (Guyana)
• For Esme, Rayne Affonso (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Blight, Vishala Christopher (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Paradise Plum, Natalie Gail Simone Corthesy (JA)

BCLF Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize

Judges: Merle Collins, Vanessa Riley and Fabienne Josaphat

Longlist

• Return To Sender, Shane McFarlane (Jamaica)
• Jungle Siren, Jade Jilisa Leatham (Dominica)
• Gambling Sweets, Caroline Johnson (Jamaica)
• These Bells Does Toll For Me, Tamara Belinfanti (Jamaica & Bahamas)
• My Father, The Teacher, Jasmine Belfast (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Common Ground, James Bernier, Jr (USVI)
• Miss Birdie and She Daughter, Kaiomi Inniss (Trinidad & Tobago)
• His Mahogany Hands, My Yellow House, Brittani Samuel (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Hayly Stemmed The Tide, Elizabeth Eugenia Thompson (Bahamas & Barbados)
• Rock Steady, Lise K Ragbir (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Little Liliana, Candice Camille Jackson (Puerto Rico)
• Concierto En Clave De Santiago, Joshua Vales (Trinidad & Tobago)
• Canerow Comfort, Jodi Anne Morris (Jamaica)

The winners will be announced at the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival in September.