Words Alive

Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the groundbreaking, first-ever Caribbean LGBT literary reading. With drinks, music, sizzling stories, and penetrating poems. Curated by Colin Robinson.

Readings by and conversation with the 2018 finalists Imam Baksh, Shakirah Bourne and Elizabeth Jones, introduced and chaired by Janet Smyth. In partnership with CODE. Now in its fifth year,... Read More

Alex Wheatle reads from his celebrated young adult novels and talks to Carolyn Cooper about the importance of representing diverse communities on the page.

An open mic event for all. Featuring some of T&T’s best new talent. 

Viviana Prado-Núñez, Kevin Jared Hosein, and Lisa Allen-Agostini, 2017 CODE’s Burt Award winners, launch their new books The Art of White Roses, The Beast of Kukuyo, and Home Home. In... Read More

The iconic Jamaican novelist and anthropologist Erna Brodber talks to Evelyn O’Callaghan about the range of her life’s creative work.

Ingrid Persaud and Celeste Mohammed, both recent winners of international prizes for their short fiction, discuss the art of the Caribbean short story with Ira Mathur.

A celebration of the Midnight Robber, one of T&T’s indigenous performance traditions. Writers Vahni Capildeo, Rhoda Bharath and Colin Robinson read new pieces inspired by the art of robber talk, and a master Midnight Robber delivers sinister news and topical commentary.

The launch of Savi Naipaul Akal’s family memoir, The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, featuring the author in conversation with Jeremy Poynting, plus readings by Bhoe Tewarie.

The launch of Savi Naipaul Akal’s family memoir, The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, featuring the author in conversation with Jeremy Poynting, plus readings by Bhoe Tewarie and Marjorie Thorpe.

Tracy Assing and Jacob Ross, contributors to the groundbreaking anthology So Many Islands, in a conversation about what makes “island” writing unique. Chaired by Nicholas Laughlin. In partnership with Commonwealth... Read More

The late Trinidadian poet, fiction-writer, editor and mentor left an indelible stamp on contemporary Caribbean letters — as attested by his daughter, filmmaker Mariel Brown, and writers Sharon Millar, Keith... Read More

The UK journalist, author of Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, talks to Marina Salandy-Brown about nationalism and ethnic tensions in contemporary Britain, 70 years after the arrival of the... Read More

Poets Adalber Salas Hernández of Venezuela and Michael Kelleher of the US read from work ranging from meditations on the nature of art to personal dilemmas in troubled times; chaired... Read More

Grenadian Jacob Ross and Trinidadians Jennifer Rahim and Keith Jardim read from and discuss their short fiction with a sharp eye on the perils and politics of the contemporary Caribbean;... Read More

The author of Brother, winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, talks to Kelly Baker Josephs about his novels turning family history into investigations of community and identity.

US-based TT poets Mervyn Taylor and Lauren K. Alleyne read from their work and discuss the challenges and responsibilities of immigrant writers in the age of Trump. Chaired by Joanne... Read More

Four extraordinary new books make their debut! Join us for the launch of Thicker Than Water, a new anthology of fiction, poems, and creative non-fiction by Hollick Arvon Prize finalists,... Read More

The renowned Sri Lankan writer talks to Susheila Nasta about his life and work spanning continents and oceans.

The personal becomes the political in the poems of UK Poet Raymond Antrobus, OCM Bocas Prize-longlisted Bahamian Sonia Farmer and Forward Prize-shortlisted Richard Georges of the British Virgin Islands. Chaired... Read More

Dramatised excerpts from V.S. Naipaul’s classic political satire, directed by Kenneth Ramchand.

Barbadian writer and editor Robert Edison Sandiford on balancing creative and editorial roles, and the literary scene in Bim.

Presenting new pieces inspired by T&T’s literary archives, by Andre Bagoo, Anu Lakhan, and Breanne McIvor, joined in conversation with Kei Miller. In partnership with Caribbean Literary Heritage, supported by... Read More

The devastating Haitian earthquake of 2010 underlies the work in fiction and poetry by Haitian-American writers Katia D. Ulysse and Danielle Legros Georges. Chaired by Ibrahim Ahmad.

An intimate conversation with Barbara Lalla, as she talks to Shivanee Ramlochan about her career wrestling with language as both linguist and novelist.

Writers’ Union members present their recent work, plus a feature presentation on “Writing as Worship” by scholar Kumar Mahabir.

2013 Man Booker Prizewinner Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries, talks to Shivanee Ramlochan about the challenges of historical fiction, the literature of New Zealand, and her experience of being... Read More

In North America and Europe, home to substantial Caribbean diaspora populations, recent politics have put questions of ethnicity and migration on the front burner. UK writer Afua Hirsch, author of... Read More

Excerpts from the theatrical adaptation of C.L.R James’s classic account of the Haitian Revolution, directed by Wendell Manwarren

Readings by the six finalists, as voted by readers across the country, introduced by Newsday editor in chief Judy Raymond.

US poet Kaveh Akbar and Jamaican Shara McCallum read from their poems addressing addiction, madness, home, and the divine. Chaired by Shivanee Ramlochan.

What does “Commonwealth literature” mean in the 21st century, and how do writers from the very different nations of the Commonwealth question the history that connects them? Writers Romesh Gunesekera... Read More

Trinidad-born, Canada-based writer André Alexis, author of the multiple-award-winning novel Fifteen Dogs, talks to Michael Kelleher about literature, ideas, and the problematic concept of “home”.

An extraordinary poetry doubleheader as two new books ­– Ricantations by 2012 OCM Bocas poetry prizewinner Loretta Collins Klobah and Venus as a Bear by TT’s own Forward Prizewinner Vahni Capildeo ­–... Read More