The Bocas Lit Fest has announced the 2019 longlist for the Caribbean’s only prize for emerging writers.

Nine writers have been longlisted for the 2019 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize, dedicated to the advancement of emerging Caribbean voices. A total of 37 writers from eight Caribbean countries submitted entries for the 2019 prize. The longlisted writers live in The Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The prize is sponsored by Dr Kongshiek Achong Low, medical practitioner and Chairman of Medcorp Limited, in memory of his parents, and is administered by The Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago and Arvon in the UK.

The 2019 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize gives the winning Caribbean-based writer support to progress a work of fiction. In 2020 and 2021, the Prize will be open to writers of non-fiction and poetry, respectively.

In addition to a cash award of US$3,000 and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon creative writing course at one of Arvon’s internationally renowned writing houses, the winning writer will spend three days in London to network with editors and publishers, hosted by Arvon and in association with the Free Word Centre. The winner is also mentored by an established writer in the genre, and gets the chance to be agented by the Rogers, Coleridge, & White literary agency in the UK.

The nine writers longlisted for 2019 are:

Heather Barker (Barbados)

Lelawatee Manoo-Rahming (Trinidad and Tobago/The Bahamas)

Ira Mathur (Trinidad and Tobago)

Otancia Noel (Trinidad and Tobago)

A-dZiko Simba Gegele (Jamaica)

Subraj Singh (Guyana)

Portia Subran (Trinidad and Tobago)

Sharma Taylor (Jamaica)

Racquel Williams (Barbados)

The winner will be announced at the 2019 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, T&T’s annual literary festival, which runs from 1 to 5 May in Port of Spain at the National Library.

Further information about the Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize is available here.