Welcome to the latest installment of the Bocas Book Bulletin, a monthly roundup of Caribbean literary news, curated by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, and published in the Sunday Express.
NEW RELEASES
The Mystic Masseur’s Wife (Peepal Tree Press) by J Vijay Maharaj, the Trinidadian author’s debut novel, provocatively responds to one of Caribbean literature’s canonical works, VS Naipaul’s 1957 novel The Mystic Masseur. Maharaj places at the centre of her narrative one of Naipaul’s subordinate characters, Leela Ramsumair—allowing her to tell her version of events in her own vivid, witty voice, along the way offering a rich, complicated portrait of Indo-Trinidadian life in the 1940s and 50s.
We Must Learn to Sit Down Together and Talk About a Little Culture: Decolonising Essays 1967–1984 (Peepal Tree Press), a very long-awaited collection of writings by Jamaican novelist, playwright, historian, and literary critic Sylvia Wynter, finally returns to print her seminal earlier work—until now scattered across back issues of academic journals, circulating via photocopies and PDF scans. Wynter’s essays and papers, collected here by editor Demetrius L Eudell, range over topics from CLR James to Spanish Jamaica, from Caribbean literary debates of the 60s and 70s to Rastafari philosophy.
History Matters: Selected Newspaper Columns, 2011–2021 (Paria Publishing) by Bridget Brereton is an ample assembly of insightful, accessible short essays by the eminent historian, who is Professor Emerita at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine. Originally published in the Express, newspaper, these columns range across the breadth of T&T and Caribbean history, often focused on new developments in the field, always elegantly written and argued.
Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution (Duke University Press), a little-known text by CLR James, returns to print more than six decades after it was first written. This history of the Ghanaian Independence movement “offers a revised understanding of Africa’s shaping of freedom movements and insight into the possibilities for decolonial futures”.
The Most Magnificent! (Everything Slight Pepper), a new book for young readers by authors Jeunanne Alkins and Neala Bhagwansingh, illustrated by Sayada Ramdial, offers a fun, colourful lesson about history and heritage.
The ornate historic buildings along the western edge of Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Savannah, popularly known as the Magnificent Seven come to life, arguing over which deserves the title of “most magnificent”.
AWARDS AND PRIZES
T&T author Celeste Mohammed’s debut novel-in-stories Pleasantview has been named the overall winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, which recognises the best book of Caribbean poetry, fiction, or non-fiction published each year.
The OCM Bocas Prize, sponsored by One Caribbean Media and administered by the Bocas Lit Fest, comes with a cash award of US$10,000. The announcement was made by chief judge Roger Robinson at a virtual award ceremony on Saturday 30 April, part of the 2022 NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
Funso Aiyejina, professor emeritus of The University of the West Indies, and Merle Hodge, former lecturer at The UWI, are the joint recipients of the 2022 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award for Distinguished Service to Caribbean Letters.
The award honours their work as creative writing teachers and mentors, and their role in shaping a new generation of Caribbean authors, in particular through the influential Cropper Foundation Writers’ Workshop. Aiyejina was also the founder of the creative writing MFA programme at The UWI St Augustine campus, and the former deputy director of the Bocas Lit Fest. Both awardees are also distinguished authors.
The novel The Bread the Devil Knead by Trinidadian Lisa Allen-Agostini has been shortlisted for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Founded in 1996, and formerly known as the Orange Prize, the award recognises the best full-length novel published in the UK each year by a woman author, and comes with a prize of £30,000. The winner will be announced in June.
The poetry collection No Ruined Stone by Jamaican Shara McCallum was named a finalist for the 2022 UNT Rilke Prize, an annual award presented by the University of North Texas which “recognises a book written by a mid-career poet and published in the preceding year that demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision”.
The 2022 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Short Fiction Story Contest opened for entries on 1 May, with a deadline of 1 July. Prizes will be awarded in two categories, one for writers based in the Caribbean and the other for Caribbean authors living in the United States. Each winner will receive a cash award of US$1,750.
CARIBBEAN BESTSELLERS
Independent bookshop Paper Based paperbased.org shares its top-selling Caribbean titles for the past month:
1. When We Were Birds, by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
2. The Bread the Devil Knead, by Lisa Allen-Agostini
3. Pleasantview, by Celeste Mohammed
4. One Day, One Day, Congotay, by Merle Hodge
5. Fortune, by Amanda Smyth
