Richard Georges’ Epiphaneia has won the poetry category of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2020.
The OCM Bocas Prize is a major award for literary books by Caribbean writers. Books are judged in three categories: poetry; fiction — both novels and collections of short stories; and literary non-fiction. The three category winners are then judged by a panel of four judges — consisting of the chairs of the category panels and the prize chair — who will determine the overall winner. The author of the book judged overall winner will receive an award of US$10,000. The other category winners will receive awards of US$3,000.
Set in the immediate aftermath of 2017’s Hurricane Irma, the most catastrophic storm to strike the British Virgin Islands, Richard Georges’ Epiphaneia is a collection of rich, transcendental verse. Beyond the loss and devastation that such a natural disaster brings, Georges’ ideas span beyond the physical world, asking us to consider the ways in which families and communities come together amidst such tragedy.
Epiphaneia, the third collection by Richard Georges of the British Virgin Islands, is the winner in the poetry category. The judges write: “In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Epiphaneia takes a deep breath and presents us with poems that outlast the storm, but sound the depths of survival and resilience, rather than being content to take refuge in them. Here we are enabled to comprehend disaster with an alertness to complexity that carries us beyond the usual triad of narrative, lamentation, and outrage. Everywhere there is sinuous rhythmic and semantic syncopation . . . in service of a poetic with urgent and palpable stakes.”.
Richard Georges is the founding editor of Moko Magazine. His poetry has appeared in The Poetry Review, The White Review, decomP, WILDNESS, Wasafiri, and elsewhere. He is the author of the poetry collections Make Us All Islands(Shearsman, 2017) and Giant(Platypus, 2018). In 2016 he won the Marvin Williams Literary Prize from The Caribbean Writer and has since been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry. Richard was born in Trinidad and raised in the British Virgin Islands where he lives and works today.
Epiphaneia is available now in paperback at £10
For review copies, sales enquiries or further information, please contact Patricia Ferguson at press@outspokenldn.com