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Sunday, March 30, 2025

GML’s Ira Mathur wins Bocas Prize for non-fiction

by

Women Empowerment Magazine
728 days ago
20230402
From left to right: Ira Mathur, Anthony Joseph and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo.

From left to right: Ira Mathur, Anthony Joseph and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo.

Books by au­thors from Trinidad and To­ba­go have swept the three genre cat­e­gories of the 2023 OCM Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture.

Writ­ers An­tho­ny Joseph, Ayan­na Lloyd Ban­wo, and Ira Math­ur have won the po­et­ry, fic­tion, and non-fic­tion cat­e­gories of the an­nu­al prize, con­sid­ered the most pres­ti­gious award for Caribbean writ­ing, spon­sored by One Caribbean Me­dia. It is the sec­ond time in the 13-year his­to­ry of the award that T&T au­thors have won all three cat­e­gories. They will now go on to com­pete for the over­all prize, recog­nis­ing the best book pub­lished by an au­thor of Caribbean birth or cit­i­zen­ship in the past year.

Po­et­ry win­ner - Son­nets for Al­bert

by An­tho­ny Joseph (Blooms­bury)

An­tho­ny Joseph’s Son­nets for Al­bert won the po­et­ry cat­e­go­ry not long af­ter be­ing award­ed the 2022 TS Eliot Prize. The OCM Bo­cas Prize judges de­scribe it as “a ten­der and beau­ti­ful­ly ren­dered eu­lo­gy for the po­et’s fa­ther, and a tri­umph of tech­ni­cal for­mal­i­ty. The col­lec­tion moves with the jaun­ty car­riage of the fa­ther it ho­n­ours, mar­ry­ing the rigid scaf­fold­ing of the form with the sup­ple mu­si­cal­i­ty of Trinida­di­an Cre­ole…Joseph’s mas­tery is what ac­com­plish­es this ef­fect with a grace that re­calls that ‘we shall all be root­ed in this well of hours, even­tu­al­ly.’” Now based in the Unit­ed King­dom, Joseph is al­so an ac­com­plished writer of fic­tion and an ac­claimed mu­si­cian.

The po­et­ry judges for the prize were chaired by past OCM Bo­cas Prize win­ner Richard Georges of the British Vir­gin Is­lands, joined by Trinidad-born po­et De­siree C Bai­ley and Cay­man-born aca­d­e­m­ic Emi­ly Green­wood.

Fic­tion win­ner - When We Were Birds

by Ayan­na Lloyd Ban­wo (Hamish Hamil­ton/Dou­ble­day)

In the fic­tion cat­e­go­ry, the win­ner is When We Were Birds, the de­but nov­el by Ayan­na Lloyd Ban­wo, al­so now based in the UK. “There are nov­el­ists who are called to bear wit­ness,” write the judges. “Lloyd Ban­wo is one of them. This as­tound­ing de­but nov­el il­lu­mi­nates mat­ters of du­ty, love, and de­vo­tion across di­vi­sions be­tween the dead and the liv­ing. An am­bi­tious tale that is part el­e­gy, part ode, When We Were Birds de­liv­ers an in­ti­mate, res­o­nant, and un­for­get­table nar­ra­tive of love that makes the most won­drous, wild and mys­ti­cal as­pects of our Caribbean feel dear­ly fa­mil­iar to all of us.”

The fic­tion judges were chaired by Ja­maican aca­d­e­m­ic Ronald Cum­mings, along­side Trinida­di­an-Amer­i­can nov­el­ist Lau­ren Fran­cis-Shar­ma and Bar­ba­di­an writer Cherie Jones.

Non-fic­tion win­ner - Love the Dark Days

by Ira Math­ur (Peepal Tree Press)

The fi­nal win­ner, in the non-fic­tion cat­e­go­ry, is the mem­oir Love the Dark Days by In­dia-born Trinida­di­an Ira Math­ur, al­ready well-known as a jour­nal­ist and long-stand­ing Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed colum­nist. It is her de­but book. “In this rich­ly lay­ered ac­count of a life lived across mul­ti­ple con­ti­nents and spaces marked by colo­nial­ism, Math­ur bold­ly and brave­ly mines the bru­tal in­ti­ma­cies and trau­mas of her grand­moth­er’s, moth­er’s, and her own life as she works to­wards find­ing be­long­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” com­ment­ed the judges. “While grand in scope, as it limns gen­er­a­tions lead­ing lives con­strained by class, caste, colour, loss, and gen­dered and colo­nial vi­o­lence, Math­ur un­flinch­ing­ly con­fronts more in­ti­mate in­ter­nalised spaces of fear, un­cer­tain­ty, and lone­li­ness to ar­rive at her own ver­sion of the New World be­long­ing that her lit­er­ary men­tor Derek Wal­cott urges.”

Guyana-born Lisa Out­ar, the ed­i­tor-in-chief of the Jour­nal of West In­di­an Lit­er­a­ture, is the chair of the non-fic­tion judges, joined by Ruth Borth­wick, chair of the lit­er­ary or­gan­i­sa­tion Eng­lish PEN, and the Vin­cent­ian writer Philip Nan­ton.

The prize

The over­all win­ner of the 2023 OCM Bo­cas Prize, cho­sen from the three genre win­ners and award­ed US$10,000, was an­nounced on Sat­ur­day dur­ing the 2023 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest. The oth­er cat­e­go­ry win­ners will re­ceive US$3,000.

The three chairs of the genre pan­els now make up the fi­nal ju­ry, joined by chief judge Bernar­dine Evaris­to, cel­e­brat­ed writer and joint win­ner of the 2019 Book­er Prize.

The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go is the ti­tle spon­sor of the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest; OCM, First Cit­i­zens, the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, NL­CB, and the British Coun­cil are main spon­sors; Massy Foun­da­tion and UWI are spon­sors. The fes­ti­val runs from 28 to 30 April 2023.

Win­ners of OCM Bo­cas Prize

for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture 2023

Po­et­ry win­ner

Son­nets for Al­bert

by An­tho­ny Joseph (Blooms­bury)

Fic­tion win­ner

When We Were Birds

by Ayan­na Lloyd Ban­wo

(Hamish Hamil­ton/Dou­ble­day)

Non-fic­tion win­ner

Love the Dark Days

by Ira Math­ur

(Peepal Tree Press)


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