Fresh Milk is deeply pleased to share the results of our inaugural Bocas Lit Fest Scholarship, which has been made possible with the generous support of Peter Lewis as part of our 2026 Slow Reading Programme. This programme serves to activate Fresh Milk’s Colleen Lewis Reading Room (CLRR), and commemorate Colleen Lewis’s legacy on the 20th anniversary of her passing.
We are delighted to announce that the inaugural Bocas Lit Fest Scholarship has been awarded to Cyndi Celeste and Connor Harris! Congratulations!
Read the full jury report process below
The Bocas Lit Fest Scholarship was designed with three principal desires in mind:
i) A programme designed by and for artists, writers, and cultural workers with the goal of drawing strength from, and consolidating an awareness across linguistic regions and generations.
ii) A programme that exalts the civic function of the arts and art research by bridging cultural practices with the social contexts to which they are responding, as well as addressing the practical needs of doing this work.
iii) A programme that activates and facilitates exchange of existing work, thought, and feeling between Barbadians and, more broadly, Caribbean people, in order to digest and counteract the prevailing sense of isolation and/or apathy our economic and social condition can perpetuate.
The Bocas Lit Fest — held annually in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago — represents the most significant literary event in the Anglo-Caribbean. Held this year from April 30th to May 3rd, it generates a period of crucial enrichment, exchange and celebration for our region’s cultural sector. We determined sponsored attendance of this festival for a Bajan writer to be a necessary element of the Slow Reading Programme, in order to take part in the world-building activities and tools that literature, arts and archiving generate, helping to foster the imagination required to navigate the nuances of the Caribbean.
The Award Details
The Bocas Lit Fest scholarship includes:
- Round-trip airfare to Trinidad and Tobago.
- 4 nights of accommodation at the Kapok Hotel.
- Airport transfers.
- A daily allowance for the 4-day duration of the festival.
Candidate Requirements:
- Candidates must be 21 years of age or older and based in Barbados.
- Candidates must hold a passport valid for at least 6 months for travel to Trinidad and Tobago.
- Candidates must be available to travel for the full duration of the festival (April 30th – May 3rd).
- Upon completion, Candidates agree to collaborate with Fresh Milk to craft a journalistic reflection/report on the experience to be shared across our public platforms.
Procedure
On March 12th, Fresh Milk contacted three esteemed members of the local literary community:
- Dr. Debra Providence, Lecturer at The Department of Languages, Linguistics, and Literatures.
- Robert Sandiford, co-founder of ArtsEtc publishing company, writer, editor and part time faculty at the Barbados Community College Division of Fine Arts Department.
- Andy Taitt, owner of Black Rock Books book store and community hub for literary events.
Providing the above mentioned background, we requested they collaborate as nominators, selecting 2 candidates each by the deadline of March 23rd.
The nominators selected the following individuals as nominees:
- Cyndi Celeste
- Claudia Clarke
- Christopher Cox
- Kemar Doughty
- Connor Harris
- Shondrell Meredith
On March 25th the nominees were contacted to be notified of their candidacy, and were requested to submit a 500-750 word Letter of Motivation by April 3rd, articulating the following:
- Why they are a suitable candidate for this scholarship.
- Describing the main themes or areas of interest in their literary craft, and if there are emerging themes in particular that they would like to further explore through attending Bocas LitFest.
- How attending Bocas LitFest will impact their professional development and area of interest.
All 6 Letters of Motivation were shared with and reviewed by the Fresh Milk team and Fresh Milk’s Board Members:
- Natalie McGuire, Curator of Social History and Engagement at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society
- Rae Skinner, Founder of Caribbean Brushstrokes Gallery
The decision making process was made through each board member representing one vote, and the Fresh Milk team representing a third vote.
General Comments
Each candidate’s Letter of Motivation reflected exciting and compelling insight into their practice, their desires and some background to their work.
Cyndi Celeste wrote of her keen dedication to exploring the themes of nation language, futurism, and “acts of re-membering as personal and collective repair”, with a special focus on the Caribbean Voice and orality. Their years spent organising events and opportunities for the broader literary and academic community, as well as for the general public, is reflected in their attention to innovating methodologies, and the social role that the literary arts must uphold.
Claudia Clarke described her commitment to writing women-centric fiction, to assert the presence of nuanced mid-life experiences in contemporary Barbados, and bringing to life the multiple layers of an invisibilised demographic. She remarks on how the “All Together Now” theme of Bocas Lit Fest this year resonates strongly with the predominantly solitary nature of literary craft which, as an emerging middle-aged writer herself, is of particular importance to engage with opportunities for community and knowledge exchange.
Christopher Cox shared his craft as dedicated to interrogations of the ills and virtues of the human psyche primarily through humorous story telling and plots of intrigue and conspiracy. He seeks to use these as vehicles to blend Caribbean History with new ways of storytelling, re-imagining past elements in exciting new settings like science fiction and modern fantasy.
Kemar Doughty spoke of his keen interest in addressing Caribbean masculine identities and the intersection of religion and sexuality in the region, as well as his curiosity at the intersection of linguistics and literary criticism. Importantly, he touches on his position as an academic and creative from an urban working class Bajan background, working within an under-narrated area to which he dedicates his voice and talents.
Connor Harris described her deep interest in working through themes of magical realism, and her particular focus on the Caribbean gap within the global canon of encyclopedias of symbolism related to regional mythologies and folklore. She reflected a well-studied understanding of her craft and its relevance within our current context, dedicated to spiritual and religious themes pertinent to cultural rites of self-actualisation, touching on memory, death/rebirth and the shadow.
Shondrell Meredith illustrated her journey from beginning as an avid reader using novels as a means to travel the world, and becoming acquainted with life in other Caribbean islands through fiction, to growing into a creator of her own stories that portray a fresh perspective of Barbadian life. She identified her motivation to bridge cultural gaps and portray our similarities in an engaging way, commenting on the value that attending Bocas Lit Fest would have for her to deepen not only her experience as an emerging writer, but also to gain a better understanding of the world of publishing and marketing.
Results
It was a difficult process evaluating the candidates, as each writer presented compelling niches and interests that would undoubtedly benefit from the opportunity to attend Bocas Lit Fest. On the one hand this positively indicates that the literary talent in Barbados is growing ambitiously, and is responding creatively to the needs of our local context. However, it signals that the cultural infrastructure and opportunities to accommodate these ambitions needs to develop and expand in tandem, in order to adequately meet the needs and desires expressed by writers from different backgrounds and practicing diverse genres.
We designed this scholarship with the initial intention of offering it to one candidate; however, upon evaluation of the top candidates we noticed that their profiles were very much complimentary and would benefit from close interaction. We therefore decided to adjust our Slow Reading Programme budgeting in order to grant the scholarship to two awardees.
We are delighted to announce that the inaugural Bocas Lit Fest Scholarship has been awarded to Cyndi Celeste and Connor Harris.
A huge thank you to Peter Lewis for making this scholarship possible, and to the nominators for their role in stewarding our local literary ecosystem.
We strongly encourage you to follow and support the trajectory of all the candidates, each with unique merits:
Claudia Clarke
Website: https://www.claudiaclarkewriter.com
Instagram: @claudiaclarkewriter
Shondrell Meredith
“These Fields and Hills” (2023) on Amazon
Instagram: @pennedbyshondrell
Kemar Doughty
Inkitt: https://www.inkitt.com/kemjlu
Christopher Cox
Instagram: @hypothetical.arts
Cyndi Celeste
Website: https://cyndiceleste.com/home
Instagram: @cyndi.celeste
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