Jasmine Sealy is Longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

Jasmine Sealy is Longlisted for the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for her novel, THE ISLAND OF FORGETTING.

The One Caribbean Media Bocas Prize, now in its 13th year, is considered the most coveted award dedicated to Caribbean writing.

It recognises books in three genre categories — poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction — published by authors of Caribbean birth or citizenship in the preceding year.

—BOCAS Litfest

Jury citation:

The Island of Forgetting, the debut novel by Barbadian-Canadian Jasmine Sealy, reimagines Ancient Greek myth in a Caribbean setting. “Sealy’s epic saga about four generations of a Barbadian family is elegantly and empathetically told in a narrative that examines selfhood and sanity in a small place,” say the judges. “She writes with a sultry assuredness about the brokenness that secrets can birth, and her craft shines through in this lushly imagined story.”

The winner will be announced on April 29.

For more information, read here.