Two writ­ers from Ja­maica and one writer from Trinidad and To­ba­go have made the short­list for the 2014 OCM Bo­cas Prize for Caribbean Lit­er­a­ture.The three will vie for the US$10,000 cash award. Spon­sored by One Caribbean Me­dia, the prize is pre­sent­ed as part of Trinidad and To­ba­go's an­nu­al lit­er­ary fes­ti­val, the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest.

From a long list of ten ti­tles in po­et­ry, fic­tion, and non-fic­tion, the prize judges have cho­sen a win­ning book in each of their own cat­e­gories. Kei Miller's Writ­ing Down the Vi­sion was cho­sen from the non-fic­tion list, and fel­low Ja­maican, Lor­na Good­i­son's Ora­cabessa was se­lect­ed from the po­et­ry cat­e­go­ry. Trinida­di­an Robert An­toni's As Flies to What­less Boys was cho­sen from the fic­tion list.

Kei Miller's work, Writ­ing Down the Vi­sion, is a col­lec­tion of es­says that present a range of ex­pe­ri­ences–per­son­al and pub­lic--which the writer us­es to ar­tic­u­late his vi­sion, his un­der­stand­ing of the re­al­i­ties of life in Ja­maica and the Caribbean.

The judges praised Miller say­ing, "Miller is an orig­i­nal thinker, a writer who knows his own mind and is wary of or­tho­dox­ies. He is un­com­pro­mis­ing and hon­est in his in­ter­ro­ga­tion of is­sues and his ex­pe­ri­ences of the worlds he in­hab­its, cut­ting through the nor­mal­cy to re­veal the re­al­i­ties of these worlds."

Ora­cabessa by Lor­na Good­i­son is a book of risky jour­neys, map­pings and re-map­pings through Spain, Por­tu­gal, Cana­da and her home­land of Ja­maica as the po­et nav­i­gates place, his­to­ry and imag­i­na­tion. Ac­cord­ing to the judges, "In Ora­cabessa the dis­tinc­tive voice of Lor­na Good­i­son–an el­e­gant, cap­ti­vat­ing fu­sion of in­ter­na­tion­al Eng­lish and Ja­maican Cre­ole–presents seg­ments of au­to­bi­og­ra­phy as a se­ries of trav­els. Good­i­son's per­sua­sive art is a many-sided cel­e­bra­tion of spir­i­tu­al search."

Robert An­toni's nov­el, As Flies to What­less Boys, is ac­cent­ed with West In­di­an ca­dence and cap­ti­vat­ing hu­mour. It pro­vides an un­for­get­table glimpse in­to nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry Trinidad & To­ba­go, the judges said, adding: "With mis­chief, in­ge­nu­ity and lin­guis­tic verve, An­toni rein­vents the idea of the re­gion's is­lands as zones of per­ilous fan­ta­sy, where dreams come to grief but still make his­to­ry."

The win­ner of the over­all OCM Bo­cas Prize will be an­nounced on April 26th, as part of the fourth an­nu­al NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest. The 2013 prize was won by Monique Rof­fey for her nov­el Arch­i­pel­ago. The 2012 prize was won by Trinida­di­an Earl Lovelace for his nov­el Is Just a Movie. No­bel Lau­re­ate Derek Wal­cott was win­ner of the in­au­gur­al 2011 prize for his po­et­ry col­lec­tion White Egrets.

The fi­nal cross-genre judg­ing pan­el, head­ed by the cel­e­brat­ed Ja­maican po­et Lin­ton Kwe­si John­son, will in­clude po­et and aca­d­e­m­ic Mervyn Mor­ris, writer and aca­d­e­m­ic Hazel Sim­mons-Mc­Don­ald, lit­er­ary crit­ic and aca­d­e­m­ic Ken Ram­c­hand and Mar­jorie Thor­pe as rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the prize ad­min­is­tra­tors.

Win­ners:

2014 OCM Bo­cas Prize win­ners

FIC­TION: Robert An­toni - As Flies to What­less Boys - Akashic Books

PO­ET­RY: Lor­na Good­i­son � Ora­cabessa - Car­canet

NON-FIC­TION: Kei Miller - Writ­ing Down the Vi­sion � Peepal Tree Press