Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival

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Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival The only literary festival in the US solely dedicated to Caribbean literature.

The BCLF is committed to celebrating Caribbean culture through the pen of the storyteller and the voice of the poet in a manner that is wholly and uniquely Caribbean.

10/06/2026

Hear it from the writers themselves!

Amina Washington is the winner of the 2026 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s prize, reading her work “Elmo.” Washington is a graduate of the University of Chicago where she earned a dual degree in English & Literature and Psychology. Her writing practice explores the interconnections of family, grief and folklore. She is also a 2026 Periplus Fellow.

Judges Khari Dawkins, Bernice McFadden and Roberto Carlos Garcia, had the following to say:

“Amina Washington’s short story, “Elmo,” is a carefully crafted work layered with love, apprehension, and the act of seeing. Washington explores the disparate worlds an immigrant Caribbean mother must inhabit to ensure the survival of herself and her daughter. Told through the daughter’s eyes and rendered in deft, engrossing language, this is the kind of story that stays with you-the kind people will talk about for a long time.”

You can now read the winning and finalist stories in full on our website. Link in bio.

10/06/2026

Hear it from the writers themselves!

Zephrine Royer is the winner of the 2026 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean reading her work “River Mouth.” Royer is a writer and documentary producer from Dominica whose creative practice centers Caribbean identity. Noting Dominican culture as the axis of her writing, her work has been long listed twice for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Judges Carol Mitchell and Kevin Jared Hosein shared this joint comment:
‘’’River Mouth,’ which is told in a wonderfully assured child’s voice. It transforms a seemingly simple childhood dare into something elemental. It is a funny and frightening piece of fiction, and Royer understands the strange proximity of terror and wonder in childhood. The judges are pleased to award this story with the overall prize.”

You can now read the winning and finalist stories in full on our website. Link in bio.

10/06/2026

Hear it from the writers themselves!

Zephrine Royer is the winner of the 2026 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean reading her work “River Mouth.” Royer is a writer and documentary producer from Dominica whose creative practice centers Caribbean identity. Noting Dominican culture as the axis of her writing, her work has been long listed twice for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Judges Carol Mitchell and Kevin Jared Hosein shared this joint comment:

“’River Mouth,’ which is told in a wonderfully assured child’s voice. It transforms a seemingly simple childhood dare into something elemental. It is a funny and frightening piece of fiction, and Royer understands the strange proximity of terror and wonder in childhood. The judges are pleased to award this story with the overall prize.”

You can now read the winning and finalist stories in full on our website. Link in bio.

09/26/2026

The collection’s 300,000 pages record the lives of enslaved people in countries including the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad

09/24/2026

Here, Chef Andre Fowles chimes in on the intrinsic value of Caribbean culinary traditions and where with innovation, it could also exist in this world that now makes fresh demands of how things are traditionally done. On this new frontier, presentation and ambience are equally desirable. And Innovation vs purity, whether one likes or not, is now part of the conversation about Caribbean culture as the diaspora continues to rapidly expand and ask questions about itself.

Catch all of Sunday Lunch at our BCLF YouTube channel.

09/20/2026

BCLF is curating intergenerational cicrles, the kind our people are used to. A gathering of aunties, tanties, grannies, uncles and children around a focal point of shared interest.

Here, repeat festival attendee, shares how several generations of families members made a pilgrimage to Brooklyn from Long Island especially to participate in the NY screening premiere in Brooklyn, and why spaces like ours are vital to our sustenance and wellbeing.

📸 by BCLF student volunteer, Valentina

In the tension that exists in between where you are and where you want to be, is something that Caribbean people carry a...
09/19/2026

In the tension that exists in between where you are and where you want to be, is something that Caribbean people carry always. Ever looking, towards the waters across which we journeyed, in search of the answers that do not always come.

Grateful to all the writers who for a sojourn in September, make Brooklyn home.

09/16/2026

Maisy Card, Lauren Francis-Sharma and Imani Perry bravely wade into the often difficult conversation about race and race relations between African-Americans and Caribbean people at Bound Together at

Here, Card via personal recollection, confronts the claims of those who deny slavery, and the legacies of colourism and anti-blackness that often exists within families in the Caribbean. She also touches on learning how to research the past and making contact with emblems, relics and monuments of slavery during her time in Jamaica.

Before her passing two years ago, the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival was able to sit down with one of the most for...
04/07/2026

Before her passing two years ago, the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival was able to sit down with one of the most formidable literary minds the Caribbean has ever produced. Today, we publish that conversation for the first time.

In the interview, Maryse Condé, novelist, historian, and uncompromising voice of the African diaspora, speaks on Creole identity and French assimilation, her journeys through Africa, the enduring weight of Fanon, and what it means to write truthfully about the people history has tried to silence.

We are honored to share a foreword from the ground breaking author who lent her name to our festival prize, Elizabeth Nunez, who knew Maryse not only as a reader and admirer, but as a guest at her table, in New York and in Guadeloupe.

Maryse Condé passed away in April 2024. This interview is in her memory, and in gratitude for everything she gave to Caribbean literature and to all of us who came after.

This interview was edited by amilcar sanatan,

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