For several years now the Cayman National Cultural Foundation, (CNCF) has been encouraging the development of local literary expression through the annual literary awards.
This year the awards ceremony, which is fast becoming a key event on the Cayfest calendar, the country’s annual cultural festival, was hosted by the University College of the Cayman Islands, (UCCI) to wide acclaim and great success on Friday 4 April.
Donna Reid the CNCF programme manager responsible for the awards said that it was a tremendous occasion and the mix of literary readings and musical performances created a memorable and moving event.
‘It was such a good awards ceremony and everyone who came enjoyed it so much we will certainly be holding the 2009 awards at UCCI. All the guests really enjoyed the beautiful presentations from both the readers and the musicians.’
The awards were presented to the literary winners by Martyn Bould, Chairman CNCF. In the short stories section, first place went to Nasaria Suckoo-Chollette for Rupert’s Dream, second to James Bodden III for The Magnificent and third place went to Jean Keen for Boat Shed Lizard. The first prize for poetry was awarded to H.M. Peter Westin, for The Death of a Father and James Bodden picked up both second and third places for his two pieces The Great and the Glorious and Possibilities.
Donna explained that the awards are all about celebrating local literary talent and encouraging local authors to express Caymanian culture through the written word. Entrants must be over sixteen years of age and living in the Cayman Islands and short stories must be 2000 words or less. The focus is on Caymanian culture past and present.
This year’s judges were Dr Keith Jardim of UCCI, Mary Rodrigues Chief Officer Designate of the Portfolio of the Civil Service, and professional literary editor Claudette Upton. Speaking about this year’s winners Claudette, who has been judging the awards for the last three years, commended the work of Nasaria which she described as truly outstanding and added that Peter’s poem was extremely moving.
‘These awards are very important to developing a literary culture in the Cayman Islands. They encourage our local authors to articulate the diverse local culture through prose and poetry. We need to nurture our local literary talent as the written word is an important part of artistic expression.’
For details of the literary awards and how to enter for 2009 contact Donna Reid at the CNCF: [email protected]
Visit www.ucci.edu.ky to learn more.
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