Myriam J.A. Chancy’s novel Village Weavers won the OCM Bocas Prize 2025 at Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
The OCM (One Caribbean Media) Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, worth US$10,000, is an annual award for books by Caribbean writers, first handed out in 2011. Books are judged in three categories: poetry, fiction (both novels and collections of short stories), and literary non-fiction (books of essays, biography and autobiography, history, current affairs, travel, and other genres). Some of the previous overall winners were Derek Walcott, Monique Roffey, Kei Miller, Canisia Lubrin, Celeste Mohammed, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, and Safiya Sinclair.
The 2025 journey started with the announcement of the shortlist on Sunday, March 16, before the finalists of Anthony Vahni Capildeo (poetry), Myriam J.A. Chancy (fiction), and Dionne Brand (nonfiction) were made public on April 6.
The winner was announced by Jamaican author Erna Brodber, chief judge for the prize at the Bocas Lit Fest 2025 at the University of Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday. Myriam J.A. Chancy’s novel Village Weavers was declared the winner with the jury describing the novel 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. “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 ceremony also honoured the winner of the Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters 2025. The award is named for the late BBC World Service radio producer Henry Swanzy (1915–2004), whose work as an editor and producer on Caribbean Voices provided a landmark platform for Caribbean writing in the 1940s and 50s, broadcasting fiction, poems, essays, and criticism by West Indian writers across the region. It celebrates the contributions of editors, broadcasters, publishers, critics, and others who have devoted their careers to developing Caribbean literature.
The 2025 winner, The Journal of West Indian Literature, was announced on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
The jury said, “The recipient of the 2025 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award is The Journal of West Indian Literature (JWIL), first published in 1986, in recognition of its indelible role as the most significant scholarly journal dedicated to the field of Caribbean literature — a vital forum for critic and creative debate, and an archive of research and thought including almost every scholar of note working on Anglophone Caribbean literature over three generations.”
The award was formally presented to current co-editors in chief Michael Bucknor and Lisa Outar on behalf of the journal.
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