[9][10] In 2020, Salandy-Brown received the Ferdinand Magellan Award from Chile, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the United Kingdom's Royal Society of Literature.
[11][12] In 2022, she received the Hummingbird Silver Medal at the National Awards ceremony in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Although I was a town girl, my father ran government experimental (agricultural) stations and we were lucky enough to also live all over rural Trinidad.
Bragg recalled the beginning of their successful long-term collaboration: "I met this producer Marina Salandy-Brown and neither she nor I wanted to go on doing the same Start the Week.
"[19] Other programmes Salandy-Brown produced for BBC Radio 4 included the series Work Talk (1991–92), presented by Ferdinand Dennis,[20] and Book at Bedtime, a 1993 edition featuring Lawrence Scott's novel Witchbroom, abridged by Margaret Busby.
The programmes won prizes and proved that there was a world of stories out there to be told and that all people could be included in the BBC without outraging the British public.
[16] Salandy-Brown has spoken of her realisation after returning to Trinidad that locally "[t]here was no place for people who read to get together, in a forum to talk about books and there were so many Caribbean writers abroad who had not been to other islands — something was missing.
"[14] So, working with a group of like-minded people – including Nicholas Laughlin, Funso Aiyejina, Marjorie Thorpe and Jeremy Taylor – Salandy-Brown launched the Bocas Lit Fest in April 2011, together with the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
[33] The Bocas Lit Fest celebrated its 10th anniversary in September 2020 with a virtual festival, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
[34][35] In January 2022, Salandy-Brown announced that she was "passing on the baton" to Nicholas Laughlin to serve in the roles of festival and programme director, while she remains as president of Bocas.
[46][47] In 2012, she was recognised by for her achievements in the Arts in the UK during the last 50 years with an award at the Trinidad and Tobago Independence Jubilee celebrations.
[51] In October 2020, an award was conferred on Salandy-Brown marking the 500th anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world, in recognition of her work founding the Bocas Lit Fest, promoting art and literature throughout the Caribbean, and exploring other cultures.
[52] The inaugural Strait of Magellan Award was presented to her at the Bocas Lit Fest headquarters, Alcazar Street, Port of Spain, on 30 November by Ambassador of Chile Juan Aníbal Barría,[53] who called Salandy-Brown "an explorer like Magellan, who, thanks to her discipline, work and innovation, has managed to build an educational space that crosses the frontiers of knowledge and contributes to the dissemination of the rich Caribbean culture.