Celebrated author Erna Brodber returns to Bocas Lit Fest

ONE of the most revered Caribbean writers of her generation, Erna Brodber is considered a Jamaican cultural icon. In May, she will make a rare visit to Trinidad and Tobago, appearing at the 2025 Bocas Lit Fest.

Born in 1940 in the village of Woodside, St Mary Parish, Brodber began her career as a sociologist based at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the Mona Campus of The UWI. Her research there in the 1970s included collecting oral histories from elderly people in rural Jamaica. These stories later inspired and informed her creative work, when Brodber turned to writing fiction, a media release said.

In her five novels – Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home (1980), Myal (1988), Louisiana (1994), The Rainmaker’s Mistake (2007) and Nothing’s Mat (2014) – Brodber weaves together her deep-seated knowledge of Jamaican history and folkways with elements of the supernatural and the mythical, to chart what she calls a “psychic landscape,” the release said.

Time is never linear in Brodber’s fiction, and the past continually interrupts the present. She has an abiding concern with the damage inflicted by slavery and colonial oppression and the need for and possibilities of repair and restitution.

Asked in a 2004 interview how she defines herself as a writer, Brodber replied: “If you want to say something, you put it down, and in a 100 years’ time someone might read it, whereas if you just said it, it could be lost. That’s important to me – that it can last for a long time.” She added: “There have been so many omissions in our history.”

Brodber’s work has been recognised with many awards. At home, she was presented with a Musgrave Gold Medal by the Institute of Jamaica in 1999. She also received a Prince Claus Award in 2006 and a Windham-Campbell Prize in 2017 – both for her total body of work.

She is now on the other side of the prize-winning equation, serving as chief judge for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. In this capacity, Brodber will attend the 2025 Bocas Lit Fest from May 1-4 and announce the overall winner of the OCM Bocas Prize at the traditional ceremony.

She will participate in a reading and discussion session on May 3, from 10 am-11 am at the Old Fire Station, Abercromby Street, Port of Spain, alongside UK-based Jamaican writer Jason Allen-Paisant, whose new book The Possibility of Tenderness describes his own upbringing in rural Jamaica. The two authors will be in conversation with scholar Kelly Baker Josephs, the release said.

The event is free and open to all, like most sessions at the 2025 Bocas Lit Fest. With the theme Always Coming Home, the festival – marking its milestone 15th year – includes other acclaimed authors like Olive Senior, Marlon James, newly-announced 2025 Windham-Campbell Prizewinner Anthony Vahni Capildeo, Myriam JA Chancy and Lawrence Scott.

OCM, First Citizens, the JB Fernandes Memorial Trust and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts are main sponsors of the 2025 Bocas Lit Fest; the British Council, the Windham-Campbell Prizes, Murphy Clarke, the Massy Foundation, and The UWI are also sponsors.

The full festival programme is online at bocaslitfest.com, with frequent updates on social media (@bocaslitfest on Facebook, Instagram, and X).