A monthly roundup of news about Caribbean books and writers, presented by the Bocas Lit Fest.
New Releases
Whose Child Are You? (self-published) by Yvonne Bobb-Smith frames a nonagenarian’s remarkable life as an author, librarian, educator, and humanist, encompassing numerous journeys made between Trinidad and Tobago and Canada. Writing candidly about the inner workings of both professional and personal life, Bobb-Smith reflects on the critical role of activism in Caribbean and wider communities, and of the sustaining power of positivity in a seemingly hopeless world. Whose Child Are You? is both tenderly and honestly told, designed to resonate with anyone intent on defining their identities through the shifting seasons of their life’s progress.
Deeper than the Ocean (Union Square & Co.) by Mirta Ojito exhumes generations of suppressed secrets, following a journalist’s quest to unearth the truth about her great- grandmother. Traversing the Canary Islands, Spain, Key West, and Cuba, the novel covers vast geographical terrain. Told in chapters that alternate between the two women, Deeper than the Ocean investigates the importance of powerful female narratives in keeping history alive. Cuban-born Ojito, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for her nonfiction, makes her novel debut with a combination of prodigious research and emotional investment in her characters’ inner lives.
P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance (Duke University Press), edited by Vanessa Díaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau, spotlights the musical superstar’s radicalising influence on his country’s sociopolitical present and future. Díaz and Rivera-Rideau make a compelling case that Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rican identity is not incidental to his meteoric success; it is critical to his unprecedented rise. Delving deep into the roots of resistance and rebellion in Puerto Rican culture, the co-editors present the “Bad Bunny Syllabus”, a radical framework for joy and artistry.
It Lurks in the Night (Disney Hyperion) by Sarah Dass continues the T&T author’s tradition of drawing on Caribbean folklore to create intensely plotted, dynamic worlds for her young adult characters. In It Lurks in the Night, the newest in Dass’s books for the Rick Riordan Presents series, a troupe of girls struggle to recover in the tragic aftermath of a boat trip gone terribly awry. What happens when their friend returns from the dead, seemingly unscathed? Dass’s examinations of the psychological underpinnings of horror are well delivered for young readers here, handled with sensitivity.
Fire Sword and Sea (William Morrow) by Vanessa Riley draws on the purported real-life legacy of seventeenth-century pirate Jacquotte Delahaye. American-Trinidadian Riley focuses on Delahaye’s extraordinary life and times, highlighting her gender-concealing efforts as pivotal to her swashbuckling fame. A cast of formidable women pirates is assembled, each of whom carries her own secrets, and their adventures as a unit are marked by profit, amorous love, and hard-won sisterhood. Fire Sword and Sea vividly imagines people who could very well have been real, operating in a time when living truly as themselves bore catastrophic consequences.
Awards and Prizes
Stephen Narain has won the 2025 Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature, an annual award administered by Restless Books, dedicated to debut authors who are first-generation immigrants to the United States. The prize confers a US$10,000 advance, alongside an artist’s residency at Millay Arts, and publication of the winning manuscript by Restless Books. Narain’s novel, The Church of Mastery, will be released in 2027. Narain, raised in the Bahamas by Guyanese parents, was a New Talent Showcase writer at the
Bocas Lit Fest’s annual festival in 2012.
Lillian Allen at The Writers Centre
On Saturday 21 February, 5.30 pm, Toronto Poet Laureate Lillian Allen will read from her body of work at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair. Jamaica-born Allen has served as Toronto’s Poet Laureate since 2023, and has published widely. Her latest full-length collection is Make the World New: The Poetry of Lillian Allen, selected and introduced by Ronald Cummings, published by Wilfred Laurier University Press. Allen will be in conversation with Bocas Lit Fest’s Festival and Programme Manager, Shivanee Ramlochan.
Copies of Allen’s books will be available for sale at Paper Based Bookshop, and audience members will have the opportunity to have their titles autographed. The event is hosted by the Bocas Lit Fest, with the support of the High Commission of Canada to Trinidad and Tobago.
Attendance is free and open to all.
Bocas Academy’s Humour and Satire Workshop with Caroline Mackenzie
Caroline Mackenzie, author of One Year of Ugly, will lead an online workshop on writing humour and satire, entitled “The Funny Thing Is”, on Saturday 21 February, 1.30–3.00 pm. Intended for writers of prose fiction at various experience levels, the workshop will focus on how to tell hard truths with well-judged doses of comedy. Mackenzie will draw on classic and contemporary examples of humorous Caribbean novels and short stories, while encouraging participants to consider the ethical ramifications of writing about real people. Attendees will leave with Mackenzie’s tried and tested tips for actioning humour and satire in works in progress.
For more information and to register, visit https://academy.bocaslitfest.com/event/the-funny-
thing-is or email workshops@bocaslitfest.com.
Caribbean Bestsellers
