#Bocas2018: Writers Respond to People's Choice
Sharing a taste of your new book to an audience of readers and writers must be a daunting task but the finalists of the inaugural People's Choice TT Book of the Year Award made it look easy at Hart Arcade on the final day of Bocas 2018. They
congratulated their fellow competitors and seamlessly
segued into their readings. Some swayed to the rhythm of their own
poetry while others stood confidently and allowed their bodies to be governed by the punctuation of their prose.
The finalists are Nichola Harvey with 21 Powerful P’s to Success, D.H. Gibbs and her book Don’t Go Mango Picking, Shivanee Ramlochan's Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting, Lyndon Baptiste with Men and Misfits, Kevin Jared Hosein and The Repenters and Michelle Borel's Soulspection: A Collection of Poetry.
This initiative by Bocas Lit Fest,together with Newsday and NALIS, aims to promote local writing in various genres and put the power into the hands of the readers to choose the winner. Round 2 began on May 1st and ends on June 1st where the winning writer will receive $5,000TT and a subscription to Newsday on-line, N Touch.
Response by readers
The competition aims to encourage more readers to support the books they have enjoyed as opposed to a judging panel of critics choosing the winner. For the finalists, the response from readers has proven to be a highlight of the experience. D. H. Gibbs commented,"The response from readers has been amazing. Quite a few people have been asking where they can get a copy of Don’t Go Mango Picking*. They were also excited to learn about scary stories that teach their children about local folklore and wanted to know when I would be producing more books."
Michelle Borel also felt quite happy at the feedback. She stated,"The response from readers has been beyond amazing. Reality is that we are all unique, yet at times have had similar struggles. So, it is great to know so many others connect with Soulspection. I am thankful for that. It is a true honour!"
Kevin Jared Hosein said, "The response from individual readers has been great. I've seen it being described as powerful and dark, and introducing a new perspective to Trinidadian childhood. Being nominated for the OCM Bocas Prize last year placed the book in the limelight for a short while, and there's always a fervent interest anytime I do a public reading. I'm most interested in what the younger people think of it, since the protagonist is himself a teenager for a great portion of the book. A few of my students have read it and have all connected to the book's introspections, and its themes of rebellion and loss of innocence (I suppose a lot of teens also enjoy reading the F-word)."
Lyndon Baptiste offered a different perspective. He said,"My friends and family pushed to get me in the top 6. Truth be told I can't say a lot of people have read Men and Misfits. It's a young book. This competition boils down to a writer's reach in the virtual and physical world, not the quality of her writing. A prize winner could lose this competition. Anyway, it's a place for readers and writers to discover books and writers that they didn't know existed. I sure discovered a lot."
Hope for future
As mentioned above, this is the inaugural year of the competition and it has certainly filled a need. It has inspired other writers and will, no doubt, enjoy a fruitful second year at #Bocas2019. Of course, writers are definitely not known to internalize their opinions. So, while the finalists sang praises for the competition, a couple offered some advice on the way forward.
Lyndon Baptiste said,"I hope it continues. The prize money is good; it can help a self-published writer recover a fraction of their investment. Round 1 sure felt long, but maybe that's because I have a book on the list. What if there was someway to bridge the digital presence with real world activities? Say, for example, there are milestones for those leading the pack and those at the very bottom. It's safe to assume those running last don't have a wide reach, so by the third or fourth week or whatever, through the competition, they visit a school or a radio program, because they need a push. It's the writers at the bottom of the barrel who really need the help."
In a similar vein, Kevin Jared Hosein explained, "Still, like any regional author, I think most of our hottest local books receive only tepid interest from the reading public at large. There has been a push by school librarians to get more local literature into the hands of its students. This has tremendously positive results, based on the numerous author visits and readings I've done at schools. Many people aren't aware of the writers currently operating here. I, myself, was initially surprised at the great amount of entries eligible for the competition's first round. As for the initiative, I believe it can be a good thing if played carefully. Online polls always bring with them the risk of skewing results via unscrupulous methods such as IP rigging and voter bots, especially if the prize became much more lucrative in the future. The integrity of a polled contest is also always inherently compromised with the lack of the filter of a judging panel. That's the nature of popularity contests. There's also the chance of the "People's Choice" not actually going to the people's choice, which could lead to mediocrity being celebrated. Because -- being honest here -- most of the votes for most of our books came from our circles (kith and kin, churches, workplaces, forums), not so much "the people". Still, I have hopes that such a prize would encourage reviewers to pick up the six nominated books this year (and others to come) and lead the charge for more readers to do the same. We don't just need more readers, we need more reviewers. Then it can be a real people's choice."
You can vote for one of the finalists here.
The finalists are Nichola Harvey with 21 Powerful P’s to Success, D.H. Gibbs and her book Don’t Go Mango Picking, Shivanee Ramlochan's Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting, Lyndon Baptiste with Men and Misfits, Kevin Jared Hosein and The Repenters and Michelle Borel's Soulspection: A Collection of Poetry.
This initiative by Bocas Lit Fest,together with Newsday and NALIS, aims to promote local writing in various genres and put the power into the hands of the readers to choose the winner. Round 2 began on May 1st and ends on June 1st where the winning writer will receive $5,000TT and a subscription to Newsday on-line, N Touch.
Response by readers
The competition aims to encourage more readers to support the books they have enjoyed as opposed to a judging panel of critics choosing the winner. For the finalists, the response from readers has proven to be a highlight of the experience. D. H. Gibbs commented,"The response from readers has been amazing. Quite a few people have been asking where they can get a copy of Don’t Go Mango Picking*. They were also excited to learn about scary stories that teach their children about local folklore and wanted to know when I would be producing more books."
Michelle Borel also felt quite happy at the feedback. She stated,"The response from readers has been beyond amazing. Reality is that we are all unique, yet at times have had similar struggles. So, it is great to know so many others connect with Soulspection. I am thankful for that. It is a true honour!"
Kevin Jared Hosein said, "The response from individual readers has been great. I've seen it being described as powerful and dark, and introducing a new perspective to Trinidadian childhood. Being nominated for the OCM Bocas Prize last year placed the book in the limelight for a short while, and there's always a fervent interest anytime I do a public reading. I'm most interested in what the younger people think of it, since the protagonist is himself a teenager for a great portion of the book. A few of my students have read it and have all connected to the book's introspections, and its themes of rebellion and loss of innocence (I suppose a lot of teens also enjoy reading the F-word)."
Lyndon Baptiste offered a different perspective. He said,"My friends and family pushed to get me in the top 6. Truth be told I can't say a lot of people have read Men and Misfits. It's a young book. This competition boils down to a writer's reach in the virtual and physical world, not the quality of her writing. A prize winner could lose this competition. Anyway, it's a place for readers and writers to discover books and writers that they didn't know existed. I sure discovered a lot."
Hope for future
As mentioned above, this is the inaugural year of the competition and it has certainly filled a need. It has inspired other writers and will, no doubt, enjoy a fruitful second year at #Bocas2019. Of course, writers are definitely not known to internalize their opinions. So, while the finalists sang praises for the competition, a couple offered some advice on the way forward.
Lyndon Baptiste said,"I hope it continues. The prize money is good; it can help a self-published writer recover a fraction of their investment. Round 1 sure felt long, but maybe that's because I have a book on the list. What if there was someway to bridge the digital presence with real world activities? Say, for example, there are milestones for those leading the pack and those at the very bottom. It's safe to assume those running last don't have a wide reach, so by the third or fourth week or whatever, through the competition, they visit a school or a radio program, because they need a push. It's the writers at the bottom of the barrel who really need the help."
In a similar vein, Kevin Jared Hosein explained, "Still, like any regional author, I think most of our hottest local books receive only tepid interest from the reading public at large. There has been a push by school librarians to get more local literature into the hands of its students. This has tremendously positive results, based on the numerous author visits and readings I've done at schools. Many people aren't aware of the writers currently operating here. I, myself, was initially surprised at the great amount of entries eligible for the competition's first round. As for the initiative, I believe it can be a good thing if played carefully. Online polls always bring with them the risk of skewing results via unscrupulous methods such as IP rigging and voter bots, especially if the prize became much more lucrative in the future. The integrity of a polled contest is also always inherently compromised with the lack of the filter of a judging panel. That's the nature of popularity contests. There's also the chance of the "People's Choice" not actually going to the people's choice, which could lead to mediocrity being celebrated. Because -- being honest here -- most of the votes for most of our books came from our circles (kith and kin, churches, workplaces, forums), not so much "the people". Still, I have hopes that such a prize would encourage reviewers to pick up the six nominated books this year (and others to come) and lead the charge for more readers to do the same. We don't just need more readers, we need more reviewers. Then it can be a real people's choice."
You can vote for one of the finalists here.
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