Here is a message from the Brooklyn Caribbean Literature Festival (BCLF) team announcing the BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest:

Diaspora People,

We are approaching the beginning of May and round the BCLF neighbourhood, that means contest season is drawing nigh. It feels like it was just last week we were crying, “We Outside!” with exultant joy, not so?

This year, our joy is even greater. 2023 marks five (5) years of the BCLF. Yep, that’s right. Is we birthday. And some of the best things in the Caribbean come in 5s. Five finger (carambola), frangipani and hibiscus immediately come to mind. 

Internally to our organisation, we are thrumming with pride over the fifth chapter of the BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest for Caribbean-American and Caribbean writers. 

We open for entries on May 1st, 2023 as usual and we’re sending this advance notice just because we love you all so much.

Dust off your journals. Tidy those manuscripts. Hem and tuck those stories saved to your drafts. This year is your year. There is no tomorrow, there’s only today. Those stories won’t tell themselves. We’d love to crown you our winner.

Celebrating Past Entrants of BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest

This year we are all too proud to say that some past entrants of our contest have gone on to take their place out in the writing world, and if this doesn’t serve as impetus to dust your manuscript(s) off, we don’t know what will.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist for 2023 included works by authors from Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Bahamas, three of whom submitted to our contest in the last two years: Alexia Tolas (2022 winner), Cosmata Lindie (2022 entrant), and Deborah Matthews (2021 entrant).

Our 2021 winner, Ahkim Alexis, was a finalist in Fix’s annual Imagine 2200 climate-fiction short story contest with “The Lexicographer and One Tree Island.” Sharma Taylor, who made the BCLF 2021 shortlist published her book, What A Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You in 2022. Cleyvis Natera was a BCLF 2019 finalist published Neruda on the Park in 2022.

With all this said, you know what you need to do. We look forward to your submission for 2023!

For more information, see https://www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com/