No­vem­ber, the cue for height­ened an­tic­i­pa­tion of the im­mi­nent Christ­mas sea­son, gets a cre­ative boost this year with the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest's full slate of free No­vem­ber events.

Two lo­cal fes­ti­vals, one in­ter­na­tion­al fes­ti­val, the fi­nale of a na­tion­al Spo­ken Word com­pe­ti­tion, a T&T tour by cel­e­brat­ed Ja­maican writer Olive Se­nior, the end of a na­tion­wide book-read­ing project and the clos­ing of two im­por­tant prizes are part of the fes­tive pack­age.

First off is the Courts Bo­cas Spo­ken Word In­ter­col fi­nal on Fri­day 11, at City Hall, San Fer­nan­do, where stu­dents will come out to loud­ly sup­port the coun­try's top sec­ondary school Spo­ken Word teams.

Up to 30,000 stu­dents in 55 schools have been prep­ping for the big day and the win­ner will ap­pear in the 2016 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest South that takes place on the San Fer­nan­do Hill, Sat­ur­day 12 and Sun­day 13.

The fes­ti­val is a cel­e­bra­tion of words, sto­ries and ideas–writ­ten, spo­ken, sung, dra­ma­tized, screened–with lit­er­ary stal­warts such as Michael An­tho­ny and Ex­tem­po mas­ter Lin­go, plus new award-win­ning writ­ers from South in­clud­ing Lance Dowrich and Kevin Jared Ho­sein.

Mind­ful of its ca­pac­i­ty to bring to­geth­er key ac­tors, the Bo­cas fes­ti­val pro­gramme in­cludes agen­da-set­ting de­bates on mat­ters of na­tion­al im­por­tance, such as Life Af­ter Oil and The Pol­i­tics of Cul­tur­al Preser­va­tion.

Part­ner­ships are a must for non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tions, and Bo­cas joins forces in South with Ju­nior San­Fest, The Or­a­to­ry Foun­da­tion and al­so with the Green Screen Film Fes­ti­val for their fi­nale film event and an af­ter-par­ty on The Hill well in­to Sat­ur­day night.

And over in Scar­bor­ough, the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest To­ba­go, No­vem­ber 17 to De­cem­ber 3, is a col­lab­o­ra­tion with the To­ba­go Word Fes­ti­val and Writ­ers Guild that will show­case To­ba­go lit­er­ary tal­ent, the top Spo­ken Word artists and of­fer work­shops and film screen­ings.

In the in­ter­im, Olive Se­nior–2016 win­ner of the OCM Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture, who will head­line the To­ba­go fes­ti­val and is queen of the Cape syl­labus–will meet over 250 stu­dents at a spe­cial event in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion.

She will thrill her oth­er fans at the Medul­la Gallery in Wood­brook on No­vem­ber 26, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Pa­per­Based book­shop.

NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest di­rec­tor Ma­ri­na Sa­landy-Brown is par­tic­u­lar­ly pleased that in the rich mix of No­vem­ber of­fer­ings is the chance for a dozen Caribbean writ­ers to show­case their work to in­ter­na­tion­al read­ers as guests of the largest lit­er­ary fes­ti­val in the USA, the Mi­a­mi Book Fair, No­vem­ber 19-20.

"A dozen or so writ­ers is a first for us. We work as­sid­u­ous­ly with po­ten­tial part­ners to pro­vide in­ter­na­tion­al plat­forms for our writ­ers, ac­claimed and emerg­ing. It's good that in­creas­ing­ly the trac­tion is grow­ing.

This year Mi­a­mi al­so in­cludes two of our for­mer Burt Award Young Adult win­ners."

She con­tin­ues, "It is a lot to be do­ing in one month both at home and abroad but we're mak­ing it a point to meet our au­di­ence where they are, and to grow that au­di­ence every­where–it's not easy but we've no doubt that it's worth it."

EVENT SCHED­ULE

Nov 11: Courts Bo­cas Spo­ken Word In­ter­col fi­nal at City Hall, San Fer­nan­do

Nov 12–13: 2016 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest South at San Fer­nan­do Hill

Nov 17–Dec 3: NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest To­ba­go, in Scar­bor­ough

Nov 19–20: Mi­a­mi Book Fair, where 12 Caribbean writ­ers will show­case their work

Nov 26: Writer Olive Se­nior meets her fans at Medul­la Gallery in Wood­brook