NGC Bocas Lit Fest, the Caribbean’s ultimate celebration of literature, was held in April of this year despite the gruelling toll of the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation it has required. The literary festival took place mainly through the screens of computers, phones and other digital devices. Nevertheless, through readings, open mic performances, film, and conversations with recognised and emerging creators, Bocas captured the essential intimacy of the literary arts.

Among the winners at this year’s festival was UWI graduate (Mona Campus) Desirée Seebaran, who took the 2021 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize (JAAWP), the region’s only prize for emerging writers. Full disclosure, I’ve known Desirée for many years. We are more professional acquaintances than close friends, both operating in the space between creative and corporate work. She was the friendly but reserved digital professional. Imagine my surprise to read work like this:

It’s an excerpt from her powerful piece, Picong, printed in UK magazine Wasafiri. The poem won her the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in 2019, a massive accomplishment for any up and coming writer or poet. The prize is part of a trajectory that includes participation in the Cropper Foundation Residential Workshop for Writers, shortlisting of her work in both the Small Axe Literary Competition and the Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets Contest, and now JAAWP.

“My close friends prepared me for it mentally this time,” says Desirée about her win at Bocas, “so I wasn’t as shocked as with the Queen Mary Wasafiri prize. “Not that they had inside info; they just believed in me a great deal and I am grateful for that support. It’s always an honour and very uplifting to have your work recognised.”

She adds, “I’m especially grateful that this prize will give me the resources to continue and complete a collection that hopefully will be published.”

The JAAWP is sponsored by philanthropist and medical practitioner Dr Kongshiek Achong Low, and is dedicated to (and named after) his parents. The prize includes US$3000, as well as a trip to the UK for an intensive writing course at Arvon Foundation, mentorship with an established author, and opportunities to meet editors, publishers and a literary agent. While she hasn’t been able to leave the country because of the pandemic travel restrictions, Desirée is still very enthusiastic about what is to come.

“Bocas and Arvon have been really proactive in planning different courses of action, so I’m not worried. It will come at the right time and right way,” she says.

Desirée grew up (and still lives) in east Trinidad. “I love being able to randomly buy mangoes at the side of the road wherever,” she laughs. She’s married and has one child, with another on the way. She studied journalism at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at UWI Mona, and works mainly in marketing and communications, focusing specifically on digital and social media.

“It’s a good fit for a journalist who realised she wanted more creative control and more money, and it pays the bills,” she says.

Interestingly, last year’s JAAWP winner was also a CARIMAC graduate, Amanda Choo Quan. When asked if UWI had helped her develop as a writer, Desirée responds:

“All the other electives I did were literature courses. I had the opportunity to study with brilliant people like Prof Eddie Baugh, Prof Mervyn Morris, Dr Victor Chang and Dr Michael Bucknor. I didn’t just study poetry, but drama and fiction too. The literature courses at The UWI were beautifully balanced between the traditionalists and Caribbean/African literature, so we got a really broad perspective on what is considered ‘canon’ internationally and also built a strong idea of our own canon right here in the Caribbean and diaspora. Dr Bucknor taught Dionne Brand’s No Language is Neutral, which was pivotal in pushing me to start writing poetry more seriously.”

UWI St Augustine’s Funso Aiyejina, Professor Emeritus and renowned author, was chief judge for the JAAWP. At the virtual prize giving, Aiyejina, who is one of the founders of the Bocas Lit Fest, described Desirée’s work as having a “confident tone and sensitive exploration of gender and culture”. The winning poet, he said, was “witty, evocative, and challenges orthodoxy”.

Her work won against a field of 35 submissions from eight Caribbean countries.

Speaking on the value of the literary festival, Desirée says, “Bocas has been staunchly committed to providing writers that space and support, as well as building community, in many different ways and forms. I can’t say enough about what they do, and this is not even taking into account the prize. Just the opportunity to sit and hear rich discussion on new work, regional literary concerns, or Caribbean cultural influences, or hear from writers who get the Caribbean context and the themes that thread their way through our work… it’s been invaluable to my growth and the growth of others.”

She also has praise for the Cropper Foundation for “the work they do in creating space for writers as well”. The JAAWP winner is hoping that The UWI will make a similar investment in Caribbean writers.

“The resources are there, the experts are there, the organisational memory is there, the library is there! How is The UWI building the canon of Caribbean literature? By all means, let us honour the Derek Walcotts, Kamau Brathwaites, Earl Lovelaces, Mervyn Morrises and Eddie Baughs. But what is the University doing to spark the writing career of a new cadre of pioneers and give them the room to develop and grow and write?”

Still, despite the challenges emerging writers face, Desirée is encouraging both in her advice and example. She recommends that writers “find a community”.

“It doesn’t have to be large. I have maybe two or three other writers who I trust and bounce things off of,” she says. “But most of us need that.”

She also recommends workshops through Bocas, the Arvon Foundation or other reputable organisation. Still, she knows that at heart writing is about the writer and the page:

“You have to be committed to your own work and your own growth, no matter how slow. You need to be in your own corner. The literary world can be just like any other industry, so bet on yourself as [actor and performer] Billy Porter said. And read as voraciously and as widely as you can.”