Safiya Sinclair, Nicole Sealey, and Kevin Jared Hosein are the shortlisted writers of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2024 announced in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, April 7, 2024.
The OCM (One Caribbean Media) Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, worth US$10,000, is an annual award for literary 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 have been were Derek Walcott, Monique Roffey, Kei Miller, Canisia Lubrin, Celeste Mohammed, and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo.
For 2024, the fourteenth consecutive running of the awards, the overall chair of the cross-genre judging panel is multiple award-winning Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat. Dandicat and her team announced the longlists in each category on March 10.
The winners in their categories and the shortlisted writers are;
Fiction
Jury: Rabindranath Maharaj (chair), Curdella Forbes, and Elise Dillsworth
- Hungry Ghosts, Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad)
Nonfiction
Jury: D. Alissa Trotz (chair), Andre Bagoo, and Rachel Mordecai.
- How to Say Babylon: A Memoir, Safiya Sinclair (Jamaica)
Safiya Sinclair said, “I’m beyond honoured that HOW TO SAY BABYLON is the Non-Fiction winner of the OCM Bocas Prize and a finalist for the overall prize. Everything I write begins and ends with the Caribbean. Everything I write is to pay tribute to the Caribbean people whose hands and dreams made me. Thank you to the @bocaslitfest judges for this recognition and encouragement, and congrats to @kjaredhosein and my beautiful genius sister in verse @nicolesealey. It’s gonna be a hell of a lime in T&T in a few weeks! 🇯🇲☀️✨”
Poetry
Jury: Canisia Lubrin (chair), Kayo Chingonyi, Ann-Margaret Lim.
- The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, Nicole Sealey (US Virgin Islands).
Nicole Sealey said, “Just landed in NYC to see this news! Thank you @bocaslitfest for this honor! And to be listed alongside my dear sister @safiyasinclair is an absolute gift! This win is for the place of my birth and dreams, St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. 🙏🏽✨”
These writers will compete for the overall cash prize of US$10,000, to be announced on Saturday, April 27, during the 14th annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain.
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