The NGC Bocas Lit Fest’s “Writer to Writer” series is back, this time featuring two winners of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
On Saturday 16 December, from 3.30 pm, authors Ira Mathur and Celeste Mohammed will take centre stage for an informal and intimate conversation at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair.
“The idea is to allow readers and audience members a peek behind the literary curtain,” says
Shivanee Ramlochan, Festival and Programme Manager for the Bocas Lit Fest.
“Ira and Celeste have produced works of non-fiction and fiction that have become deeply important to our national and Caribbean consciousness, as impactful as any books being lauded in international spheres. ‘Writer to Writer’ provides a unique chance to peer into each author’s innermost process, in as convivial an atmosphere as you can imagine.”
Celeste Mohammed, whose novel-in-stories Pleasantview won the overall 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for
Caribbean Literature, expressed delight at being paired with Ira Mathur for their upcoming
conversation. “Ira interviewed me during my first NGC Bocas Lit Fest, at a major inflection point in
my career,” says Mohammed, who is now working on a creative non-fiction project. “So much has
changed in both our writing journeys since then. I look forward to catching up and trading notes
about what often feels like the loneliest of wars: the writerly battle with self-doubt, particularly
when rendering real lives upon the page.”
Ira Mathur, winner of the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction for her debut memoir Love the Dark
Days, also recalls that pivotal interview. “I was inspired to write when I first interviewed Celeste
Mohammed on her award-winning short stories at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in 2016,” she says, “so it
feels like serendipity and a special gift for us to sit across from one another now as Bocas awardees.
We are Caribbean authors whose work has been recognised by our own people, and we speak of the
alchemy of our words and the world we live in.”
The first NGC Bocas Lit Fest “Writer to Writer” event, held in October, featured novelists Kevin Jared
Hosein and Breanne Mc Ivor, and was launched to a packed and attentive audience at The Writers
Centre.
