The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCFL) is around the corner, and the theme this year is “We Outside!” The BCLF team reminds us that the BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2022 is still accepting entries until July 1, 2022 (11:59pm, EST).

The BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest is an annual writing competition geared towards unearthing and encouraging the distinctive voice and story of the Caribbean-descended writer and expanding the creative writing landscape of Caribbean literature. It aims to provide a conduit through which writers of Caribbean descent find encouragement and empowerment to weave and share their stories. Both of the contest’s prizes are directed to the two distinct voices and perspectives which comprise the Caribbean identity – writers who were born and live in the Caribbean and those who reside in the diaspora.

The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize seeks to unearth hidden storytellers in the United States and Canada and is open to unpublished writers of Caribbean heritage. The BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean, on the other hand, is open exclusively to Caribbean writers of all levels who reside and work in the Caribbean.

Visit www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com for more detailed eligibility requirements.

With these two awards, the BCLF ensures that it does not pit the variegated perspective of the ever-expanding definition of the Caribbean writer against itself. Overall, the contest and its prizes work to increase exposure for Caribbean writers to wider audiences. Both prizes are meant to enhance writers’ visibility and consequently grow their access to larger literary networks and resources for writers of Caribbean descent. This devotion to narrowing the gaps between the fertile resources of the literary industry and historically under-recognised groups like Caribbean writers remains the BCLF’s primary mission while simultaneously guiding the contest’s rules and eligibility criteria.

This year we have the honor of Katia D. Ulysse and Ifeona Fulani judging the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize.

Tanya Savage-Batson and Ayesha Gibson-Gill will judge the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean.

The prizes, guidelines and submission form may be found at the following link: https://www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com/2022-short-fiction-story-competition

The submissions portal closes on July 1st, 2022, 11:59 pm EST.  

For eligibility guidelines and to submit https://www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com/2022-eligibility-submission-guidelines-caribbeanamerican 

Also see www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com