A monthly roundup of news about Caribbean books and writers, presented by the Bocas Lit Fest.
New Releases
Sparrow Take Over: Essays on the Bard’s Art, edited by Donna Benny: this gathering of critical essays and commentary brings the legacy of the Calypso King of the World soaring to life. Well-timed to usher in the 90th birthday of Slinger Francisco himself, Sparrow Take Over features contributions from Marina Salandy-Brown, Anu Lakhan, Gordon Rohlehr, Ira Mathur, Patricia Mohammed, and Hollis Liverpool/Mighty Chalkdust, among others. Arranged in five sections – Sparrow in Context; About Love and Money; Decolonisation and Politics; Commercialism, Calypso and Respect; Sparrow’s Mischief – the book is a treasury of experiences, reflections, and cogent insights on an artiste extraordinaire.
The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief, by Tessa McWatt (Penguin Random House Canada/Scribe Publications) is an ecological memoir by the 2020 winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Nonfiction). The work combines McWatt’s chronicle of her mother’s dementia prognosis with the degradation of the natural ecosystems sustaining human life. As the memoirist immerses herself in a forest, she uncovers ever deeper questions about mourning, remembrance, and environmentally-focused resilience in devastating times. Described as a ‘radical ecosystem of a book’ by Marchelle Farrell, The Snag points towards restorative pathways for struggling individuals and solidarity-based communities alike.
Paradise Once (Akashic Books), the newest historical novel by Jamaican author Olive Senior, emphasizes the importance of the indigenous Taíno people in the Caribbean. Senior, who won the overall 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, focuses the narrative of Paradise Once on four survivors of a massacre. Imbuing their journeys with a mixture of sacred promise and immediate peril, the destinies of this young quartet become forever intertwined. Set in 16 th century Cuba, the novel nonetheless feels sharply contemporary in its concerns: readers will root for these central characters, who strive against harrowing odds to preserve their cultural soul.
Love Forms (Faber/Hogarth) is Trinidadian Claire Adam’s much-anticipated sophomore novel, following her debut, Golden Child. Love Forms hinges on the decision of Dawn Bishop, who surrendered her child for adoption in Trinidad’s 1980s. Two decades after her decision, made at sixteen years old, a stranger reaches out to Dawn across the impersonal reaches of the internet, claiming to be her daughter. Adam excels at heightening dire emotional stakes with a compulsive force that feels real: these, the reader senses, could be real people, living real and uncomfortably relatable lives. The book has been heralded by Monique Roffey as ‘exquisitely written’.
Guaracara (Carcanet Press) by Fawzia Muradali Kane focuses on Indo-Caribbean experience, distilled in poems that speak of sugar cane and oil refinery histories in Trinidad. In the thirteen-poem movement ‘Let Us Mourn the Death of King Sugar’, the reader is addressed by the collective voice of King Sugar itself, speaking directly and often in dramatic resonances to those who have survived the legacies of cane. Guaracara follows Kane’s 2011 collection, Tantie Diablesse, which was shortlisted in the poetry category of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. The poems in Guaracara serve as redoubtable
successors to Kane’s first book.
Bocas Academy July/August Workshops
A hands-on session in zine making and an immersive masterclass in storytelling are the July/August offerings of the Bocas Academy. On Saturday 19 July at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair, graphic designer Kriston Chen will lead an interactive workshop in crafting a zine, which is a paper-based artistic product, designed by hand and not intended for commercial use). Individuals with all levels of zine experience are welcome to attend, and all materials will be provided.
On Saturday 16 August, in a session held via Zoom, award- winning writer Kevin Jared Hosein, author of Hungry Ghosts, will lead a masterclass on crafting compelling narratives. Participants working in all genres of writing are welcome to attend Hosein’s masterclass, as the skills and craft lessons taught will be applicable to avariety of projects.
Further information on both classes is available at the Bocas Academy.
Amanda Smyth at The Writers Centre
Irish-Trinidadian novelist Amanda Smyth visits The Writers Centre on Saturday 26 July, 5.30 PM, to share from her hot-off-the-press new novel-in-stories, Look at You (Peepal Tree Press). Look at You moves through a girl’s coming of age as she navigates Trinidad, England, and Ireland. Told in a crisp, unflinching prose, heralded by Ali Smith as being in the style of Jean Rhys herself, Smyth’s newest has been described as her best yet. She will read from and discuss the book in the company of moderator Shivanee Ramlochan, and take questions from the audience.
Copies of the book will be available from Paper Based Bookshop and Sleepy Cat Cafe will be serving beverages and pastries. The event is free and open to all.
St. Lucia-born author wins 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Canadian Vincentian writer Chanel Sutherland has taken the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, worth £5,000, for her piece entitled “Descend”. Sutherland’s story channels the voices of African slaves, speaking to each other of their lives as their vessel sinks during a transatlantic crossing. Sutherland, born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is presently based in Montreal, Canada. Her debut short story collection, Layaway Child, will be published by House of Anansi in 2026.
Caribbean Bestsellers
Independent bookshop Paper Based (Instagram: @paperbasedbookshop) shares its top-selling Caribbean titles for the past month:
- Mixing Memory and Desire: How History Shaped the Foods of the Caribbean, by Lee
Johnson
2. Ever Since We Small, by Celeste Mohammed
3. History Matters, edited by Heather Cateau, Rita Pemberton, and Ronald Noel
4. The Village of One, by Richard Charan
5.Sparrow Take Over: Essays on the Bard’s Art, edited by Donna Benny
