The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain.
[14] The Bocas Lit Fest was described by Claire Armitstead of The Guardian as "expansive in its cultural reach, reflecting a region that has responded to its own colonisation over the centuries by seeding its people to every continent".
[15] The Bocas Lit Fest was established in 2011, with the organising team comprising Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and managing director; programme director Nicholas Laughlin,[16] editor of the Caribbean Review of Books and of Caribbean Beat; Funso Aiyejina, prize-winning author and dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine; Marjorie Thorpe, former professor of literature at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, independent bookseller Joan Dayal of Paper Based Bookshop;[17][18] Danielle Delon, editor of The Letters of Margaret Mann; local businesswoman Lucita Esau; and Patrice Matthews, a marketing and media professional.
There is also a full programme of activities for young readers, sponsored by KFC, and in the run-up to the festival storytelling events take place in Tobago, Couva, Chaguanas, San Fernando, Point Fortin, Mayaro and Arima.
[20] The Bocas Lit Fest was held for the first time in 2011 – from Thursday, 28 April to Sunday, 1 May[23] – including readings, panel discussions, workshops, film screenings and art exhibitions.
[26] The scores of writers taking part in the 2012 festival, both locally based and from abroad,[27] included Fred D'Aguiar, Earl Lovelace, Vahni Capildeo, Chika Unigwe, Monique Roffey, Kenneth Ramchand, Mervyn Morris, Achy Obejas, Rabindranath Maharaj, George Lamming, professor of genetics Steve Jones, Merle Hodge, Rahul Bhattacharya, and Michael Anthony.
[29][30] In November 2014, NGC Bocas Lit Fest South was hosted by Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA) in San Fernando, birthplace of the writer Sam Selvon, and the festival commemorated the 20th anniversary of his death.
Virtually all the writers honoured — including Marlon James, Kei Miller and Vahni Capildeo — were first recognised at this extraordinary little festival in the tropics, a place that is only far away to those who refuse to read.
[66] Trinidad-born scholar Sandra Pouchet Paquet received the award in 2023,[67] and Guyana-born publisher Arif Ali was announced as the 2024 winner.
[68] The Bocas Lit Fest additionally administers the Burt Award sponsored by CODE (Canadian Organization for Development Through Education)[69] for Caribbean authors of literature for young adults, launched in 2013.
[72] The 2016 prize winner was debut novelist Tamika Gibson, with Florenz Webbe Maxwell of Bermuda second, and Danielle Y. C. McClean in third place.