"I have made sev­er­al calls for a Na­tion­al Lit­er­ary Prize. Many coun­tries in­clud­ing Cu­ba and Guyana have these prizes and in Trinidad and To­ba­go we do not have any. Based on this com­pe­ti­tion, I think the Writ­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go should take on the task of cre­at­ing a Na­tion­al Lit­er­ary Prize for our coun­try," chal­lenged au­thor and se­nior lec­tur­er Mer­le Hodge as he ad­dressed the mem­ber­ship at the Writ­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go's (WUTT) Awards for its Pres­i­dent's Cup Fic­tion Con­test on June 25, at the Na­tion­al Li­brary Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.Hodge was one of three judges on the pan­el which in­clud­ed fel­low au­thor Earl Lovelace and long serv­ing WUTT Pres­i­dent Van Stew­art. The Pres­i­dent's Cup Fic­tion Con­test was open to all reg­is­tered mem­bers of WUTT and ran over four weeks. En­trants were asked to sub­mit a fic­tion piece no longer than 2,000 words on the theme Black­ness. The judg­ing pan­el eval­u­at­ed a to­tal of nine sto­ries that ex­plored Racism, Life and Death and Lo­cal Folk­lore.

In the end the three win­ners were:

1st Place – Par­adise Pub-Ja­son Jarvis

2nd Place – Our Won­ders to Per­form-Kasi Sen­g­hor

3rd Place – Black Hair-Hazel Mc Shine

Hodge com­mend­ed the win­ner Ja­son Jarvis for his, "abil­i­ty to draw on a rich vo­cab­u­lary pool-a com­mand of "le mot juste.""The point of view and voice of char­ac­ter were very well sus­tained through­out the sto­ry. (Jarvis) knows each of his char­ac­ters and put him­self in­to the char­ac­ters, sees through their eyes and draws the read­er in."In­ter­est­ed peo­ple are al­so in­vit­ed to join the group on Face­book-Writ­ers Union of Trinidad and To­ba­go.