Guyanese author John Agard, who has lived in the United Kingdom since 1977, has been named the winner of the 2021 Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award by the British children’s reading charity Booktrust. The award “is given to a children’s writer or illustrator whose body of work, in the opinion of the panel of judges, merits recognition for a lifetime’s achievement in children's literature.” The judges cited Agard’s “persistence and creativity in championing and challenging the language norms that too often dominate literature and the curriculum as well as his ability to connect with children today and inspire them to reach for their goals and aspirations.”

Two books by British poets of Caribbean ancestry have been shortlisted for the 2021 Costa Book Award for Poetry: All the Names Given, by Raymond Antrobus, and The Kids, by Hannah Lowe. The annual Costa Book Awards, bestowed annually and open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland, come with a £5,000 prize in each of five genre categories. Genre winners will be announced on 4 January, 2022. The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year will be announced on 1 February.

The Royal Society of Literature, a UK-based literary charity, has announced its inaugural cohort of RSL International Writers. The programme is “a new award recognising the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders to bring people together.” The twelve new International Writers include two of Caribbean birth, both now living in the United States: Antigua-born Jamaica Kincaid and Jamaica-born Claudia Rankine. The programme is now open for public nominations for the 2022 cohort, with details available at www.rsliterature.org/rsl-international-writers.

The debut Bocas Lit Fest Children’s Book Prize, supported by the Unit Trust Corporation, has announced its winner: When Life Gives You Mangoes, by Kereen Getten, a Jamaica-born writer living in Britain. The prize recognises Caribbean books for young independent readers aged seven to twelve, and comes with a cash award of US$1,000. “The story takes you through a wide range of emotions,” commented head judge Joan Osborne, former Executive Director, NALIS. “All the themes are skilfully woven into a balanced, fast-paced, elegantly written story, which will certainly hold the interest of all readers.”

Open for applications in November, the 2022 Bocas Emerging Writers Fellowships have a submission deadline of Monday 6 December. The fellowships are intended to support early-career Caribbean-based writers whose work explores complex questions, ideas, and genre-crossing forms. They will run for a period of six months, during which both writers will receive support in advancing or completing a book manuscript or other body of work. The fellowships are made possible by generous donations from Canisia Lubrin, winner of the overall 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature; Dionne Brand, winner of the 2019 OCM Bocas Prize in the fiction category; Christina Sharpe, judge for the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize in the fiction category; and Allyson Holder. Details and application guidelines are available at www.bocaslitfest.com/awards/emerging-writers-fellowships-2022.