Four Trinidadians are among 15 authors who have been shortlisted for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
They have been selected across the three categories for poetry fiction and nonfiction. Mervyn Taylor's book Getting Through: New and Selected Poems and Anthony Vahni Capildeo's Polkadot Wounds are among the five poetry finalists. A K Herman's The Believers is among the fiction finalists, while the nonfiction contender is Salvage: Readings from the Wreck by Dionne Brand.
The OCM Bocas Prize is the most-coveted award for Caribbean authors. It recognises books in three genre categories – poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction – published by authors of Caribbean birth or citizenship in the preceding year, a media release said.
The event is sponsored by One Caribbean Media, owner of the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper, TV6 and the OCM radio network.
The prize has been presented annually since 2011 and in commemoration of the 15th year of the prize, the shortlists for the three genre categories have each been increased to five books, resulting in 15 books for the overall award.
Debut books make up a strong proportion of the shortlists, with six first-time authors selected by the judges, the release said.
The genre winners will be announced on April 6 and overall winner will be announced on May 3 during the Bocas Lit Fest which takes place from May 1-4 at various venues in TT.
Poetry
The authors of the five books shortlisted for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry include two veterans alongside three debut poets.
[caption id="attachment_1144718" align="alignnone" width="640"] Anthony Vahni Capildeo -[/caption]
Polkadot Wounds by Trinidadian-Scottish Anthony Vahni Capildeo “transforms form,” say the judges. “These poems make it seem like an easy feat to hold millennia in one image and then another, moving inside of time with grace … It is in fact a miracle only made possible by bringing a depth of precision and an openness of sound together again and again.”
West of West Indian by Linzey Corridon, born in St Vincent and the Grenadines, based in Canada – “reclaims deadly and derogatory stereotypes to create a counter archive of Caribbean LGBTQ healing,” the judges remark. “With reclamatory portraits and transformative questions, Corridon works a spell and opens a way. This collection of poems will be a life-saving and life-giving text for years to come.”
Some of Us Can Go Back Home – Jamaican Yashika Graham – “is a stunning debut where the vital energy of the poetic work meets the craft of an insightful and brave voice. In Graham, we have a worthy steward of the lineage of Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior, Edward Baugh, and generations of poets who offer a loving claim and a transformational call through their precise and attentive poetic ceremonies.”
[caption id="attachment_1018373" align="alignnone" width="769"] Mervyn Taylor[/caption]
Getting Through: New and Selected Poems – US-based Trinidadian Mervyn Taylor – “is a record of a lifetime of deep listening and intense o
