Volume 34 • Prize Winners • Carmelo Rivera • Eugenia O’Neal • Natalie G.S. Corthésy • Rajiv Ramkhalawan • Rohan Facey
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Editor, Alscess Lewis-Brown
abrown@uvi.edu
November 16, 2020
The Caribbean Writer Announces Volume 34 Prize Winners
The Caribbean Writer is pleased to announce the Prize Winners for its Volume 34 edition under the theme, Dignity, power and Place in the Caribbean Space. Winners in the various categories are as follows:
Carmelo Rivera
The Daily News Prize Winner
The Daily News Prize to an author of fiction or an essay from the BVI or the U.S. Virgin Islands goes to Carmelo Rivera for “About My Identity Journey,” one in a series of essays about identity and growing up. Rivera is a graduate of the University of the Virgin Islands and of SUNY at Albany. He was born on the island of Vieques and raised on St. Croix from primary school to college. He is currently a human resources professional residing part time in Florida.
Eugenia O'Neal
The Canute A. Brodhurst Prize Winner
The Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for best short fiction goes to Eugenia O’Neal for “Harold Varlack’s Return.” She is the author of two novels Jessamine and Jamaica Dreaming as well as works of non-fiction including Black Voices and From the Field to the Legislature. A Tortolan, O’Neal resides in Grenada.
“Occasional Moonlight” by Sara Lynn Burnett and “Gringo Pobre” by Rafael Gamero were also shortlisted for this prize.
Natalie G.S. Corthésy
The Marvin E. Williams Literary Prize Winner
The Marvin E. Williams Literary Prize for a new or emerging writer goes to Natalie G.S. Corthésy for “The Helper Experiment.” Corthésy has been published in The Daily Gleaner, The Carimac Times and most recently in The Caribbean Writer Volume 33 (2019). She is a Calabash International Literary Festival Poetry Workshop fellow. Her first collection of poems is Fried Green Plantains, Nasara Publishing, 2017. Corthésy lives and works in Kingston as a Lecturer at The University of the West Indies, Mona.
“Ananci” by Chike Bukka Roots Pilgrim and “The Returned (Los Cocolos)” by Althea Romeo Mark were also shortlisted for this prize.
Rajiv Ramkhalawan
The Cecile de Jongh Literary Prize Winner
The Cecile de Jongh Literary Prize to a Caribbean author whose work best expresses the spirit of the Caribbean goes to Rajiv Ramkhalawan for “An Unkept Heart.” Ramkhalawan was awarded a Gold Key Award (2006) from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for a collection of prose and poetry. He is a Trinidadian and practicing attorney-at-law currently writing his first novel.
“Diaspora Darling” by Latoya S. Smith and “Spinner” by C. Andie Davis were also shortlisted for this prize.
Rohan Facey
The Vincent Cooper Literary Prize Winner
The Vincent Cooper Literary Prize to a Caribbean author for exemplary writing in Caribbean Nation Language (Kamau Brathwaite) goes to Rohan Facey for “Fi We Language.” Facey is a multiple-award winning poet, songwriter and playwright. He has won a number of awards for his work, his poems have appeared in The Sunday Gleaner, The Sunday Observer and The Caribbean Writer.
The Caribbean Writer truly appreciates the tremendous support of its prize sponsors. It is evident that their generosity is carving new inroads and casting new futures in literacy and literature within the Virgin Islands, the broader Caribbean and regions beyond.
For more information on The Caribbean Writer, please visit www.thecaribbeanwriter.org
S.D.Brown
The prizes are well-deserved. I personally enjoyed reading the stories of Rajiv Ramkhalawan and Antonio Arch.