For the second consecutive year, Guyanese writer Imam Baksh has been shortlisted for CODE’s Burt Award for Caribbean Literature.
In 2015, Baksh’s first novel, Children of the Spider, was judged the winner of the award, which is now in its third year. Baksh, who is a three-time winner of the Guyana Annual’s Henry Josiah Writing Short Story for Children prize, submitted a manuscript titled “The Demise of the Queen’s College Adventure Club.”
Selected as one of six shortlisted titles from a pool of 60 submissions, the novel is described by the Bocas jury as a writers from Guyana, St. Kitts & Nevis, Bermuda, and Trinidad & Tobago. “A thrilling story, infused with creepy moments and nonstop suspense that grabs the reader all the way through—a nod to the old Dracula tale. It conveys vibrant mental and emotional images of each character. The plot is strong and there is a haunting sense of adventure set against the larger workings of history and politics.”
The Burt Award for Caribbean Literature was established by CODE – a Canadian charitable organisation that has been advancing literacy and learning for 55 years – in collaboration with the Literary Prizes Foundation. The Award is administered in Port of Spain by the Bocas Lit Fest, the literary organisation that founded the largest annual literary festival of the Caribbean region, the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
Now in its third year, the Burt Award
for Caribbean Literature recognizes excellence in young adult writing within the region, and awards up to $22,000 CAD in prize money to its three winners, to be announced during this year’s festival.
