CODE announced the winners of its third annual Burt Award for Caribbean Literature, which recognizes outstanding writing for young adults by Caribbean authors, at the 2016 NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Tamika Gibson received the first prize of$10,000 CAD for her first novel, De First Family. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Gibson now lives in the US Virgin Islands. Florenz Webbe Maxwell of Bermuda won the second prize of $7000 CAD for Girlcott, and Danielle Y.C. McClean of Trinidad and Tobago, now based in Tennessee, took home the $5000 CAD third prize for The Protector’s Pledge.
De First Family and Girlcott are unpublished manuscripts, and The Protector’s Pledge was self-published. CODE will facilitate the publication of all three novels by connecting the authors with Caribbean publishers, and will also purchase up to 6000 copies of the winning titles and donate them to schools, libraries and community organizations across the region.
