The Caribbean Writer, nestled within the University of the Virgin Islands College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, is pleased to announce the Prize Winners for its Volume 38 edition. Winners in the various categories are as follows:
The Daily News Prize for a prose or fiction writer resident in the US Virgin Islands or the British Virgin Islands goes to Maria Elizabeth “Betty” Ausherman for the essay “Wallace Williams: A Reflection." This award is a long-standing prize sponsored by the Virgin Islands Daily News for more than two decades.
The Marvin E. Williams Literary Prize for a new or emerging writer goes to Jen Ross Laguna who was selected for her poem titled “A New World Order.” This prize is sponsored by Dasil Williams, wife of the late Marvin Williams, former editor (2002 to 2008) of The Caribbean Writer.
The Vincent Cooper Literary Prize goes to Caleb Dros for his poem “If There is Psalt After Death." The prize is awarded to a Caribbean author for exemplary writing in Caribbean Nation Language (a term used by celebrated post-colonial Caribbean author Kamau Brathwaite to describe vernacular language born in the Caribbean). This prize is sponsored by UVI Professor Vincent Cooper, a long-standing member of TCW’s board of editors, himself a Rhodes Scholar, author and poet.
The Anacaona Prize, The Caribbean Writer’s newest prize of $500 to an author demonstrating technical skill and originality, goes to A.L. Dawn French for her short fiction "Discoveries.” The prize is sponsored by a world-renowned member of TCW’s editorial board who wishes to remain anonymous. The Anacoana Prize replaces the Canute Brodhurst Prize sponsored by the recently folded St. Croix Avis—a newspaper which came into publication four years after slavery ended in the Danish West Indies, and a
founding prize sponsor for The Caribbean Writer when it was first published in 1987.
The Caribbean Writer truly appreciates this level of support, and thanks its prize sponsors for their generous gesture towards improving literacy and literature, not only within the Virgin Islands but across the Caribbean region and beyond.
The Caribbean Writer welcomes new prize sponsors who are keenly interested in cultivating and advancing the literary life of the region.
For more information on The Caribbean Writer, please visit www.thecaribbeanwriter.org
