Code and the Bo­cas Lit Fest have named five fi­nal­ists for the 2015 Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture.

They were se­lect­ed by an in­ter­na­tion­al ju­ry ad­min­is­tered by The Bo­cas Lit Fest and made up of writ­ers, ed­u­ca­tors, and lit­er­a­cy ex­perts, led by the T&T Guardian's Deb­bie Ja­cob.

Up to CAD$22,000 in prize mon­ey will be award­ed to up to three win­ners, who will be an­nounced at a Gala dur­ing the 2015 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest which takes place in Port-of-Spain from April 29 to May 3.

In ad­di­tion, as part of the Award's book pur­chase and dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­gramme, up to 7,500 copies of the win­ning ti­tles will be do­nat­ed to schools, li­braries and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions across the Caribbean.

The short­list­ed ti­tles are:

Chil­dren of the Spi­der by Imam Baksh, Guyana (man­u­script to be pub­lished)

Putting Up a Re­sis­tance by Michael Co­zi­er, T&T (self-pub­lished book)

Danc­ing in the Rain by Lynn Joseph, T&T (man­u­script to be pub­lished)

Prayer to the Mo­ti­va­tor by Ka­mau Ma­hakoe, Ja­maica (man­u­script to be pub­lished) The Dol­phin Catch­ers by Di­ana Mc­Caulay, Ja­maica (man­u­script to be pub­lished) A re­lease said this is the sec­ond edi­tion of the Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture. In 2014, 7,500 copies of the first three win­ning ti­tles (All Over Again by Ad-Ziko Sim­ba Gegele, Mu­si­cal Youth by Joanne C Hill­house and In­ner City Girl by Colleen Smith-Den­nis) were dis­trib­uted to schools, li­braries and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions in 12 Caribbean coun­tries. Some of the win­ning au­thors al­so had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet with young read­ers and as­pir­ing writ­ers for young peo­ple in Montser­rat, An­tigua, and Bar­ba­dos as part of an au­thor tour.

Ma­ri­na Sa­landy-Brown, founder of The Bo­cas Lit Fest, Code's lo­cal part­ner in im­ple­ment­ing the Award, said in the re­lease, "This is more than a prize.

The Code-spon­sored re­gion­al writ­ing work­shops and the pub­lish­ing of new man­u­scripts con­tribute to the cre­ation of a body of good, young adult lit­er­a­ture and a much need­ed lit­er­ary in­fra­struc­ture in the re­gion."

The Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture was es­tab­lished by Code–a Cana­di­an char­i­ta­ble or­gan­i­sa­tion that has been ad­vanc­ing lit­er­a­cy and learn­ing for 55 years–in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Lit­er­ary Prizes Foun­da­tion.

Code's Burt Award is a glob­al read­er­ship ini­tia­tive and is al­so cur­rent­ly es­tab­lished in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tan­za­nia and Cana­da.

"Code is very proud and ex­cit­ed to be adding these great books to the Burt Award fam­i­ly," said Code ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Scott Wal­ter.

"Be­yond sim­ply recog­nis­ing ex­cel­lent writ­ing in the Caribbean, this Award aims to ig­nite in young peo­ple a life­long love of read­ing by putting in their hands books that fea­ture sto­ries, sit­u­a­tions and char­ac­ters they can re­late to. We can't wait for them to dis­cov­er this year's win­ning ti­tles."

In­fo

�2 For fur­ther de­tails on the Burt Award for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture, see: www.code­can.org/burt-award-caribbean, con­tact: in­fo@bo­caslit­fest.com or call 222-7099.