Neve Gordon-Farleigh (BBC News) brings attention to Tessa McWatt, who was the overall winner of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for her memoir The Snag: A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief. The announcement was made on May 2, 2026, during the 2026 Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
The winners in the three genre categories were:
- POETRY — The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem, by Canisia Lubrin (McClelland & Stewart)
- FICTION — Ibis, by Justin Haynes (Overlook Press)
- NONFICTION — The Snag: A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief, by Tessa McWatt (Random House Canada/Scribe UK)
Neve Gordon-Farleigh writes:
An author from Guyana said she was “honoured” to win the highest prize in Caribbean literature for her memoir which explores losing her mother to dementia.
Tessa McWatt, a professor in creative writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, was awarded the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in a ceremony held in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. The prize is widely regarded as the leading international award for Caribbean writing.
She said the recognition was a “real joy, as it feels like a win for my mother, who is the central figure in the book and my heart’s inspiration”.
The memoir reflects on her mother’s experience with dementia and examines collective grief following the environmental destruction caused by global pandemic, war and climate change. “The journey is the grief of my mother with dementia and us losing her and her having to move out of her home,” she said, speaking to BBC Look East presenter Susie Fowler-Watt.
[. . .] I was looking at a way to embrace it.”
‘The award was for my mother’
The story – The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief – spans a period of two months.
“A snag is a dead or dying tree in the forest and although it might look like it’s lost its importance, it is the most important tree in the forest. You shouldn’t take a snag out of the woods it should be allowed to decay there. It became a metaphor for my mum and richness of the elderly and the richness of watching someone go through dementia. I was learning some amazing things from her.” [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkvdgv06pmo
Also see https://www.bocaslitfest.com/awards/ocm/
Neve Gordon-Farleigh (BBC News) brings attention to Tessa McWatt, who was the overall winner of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for her memoir The Snag: A Mother, a Forest, and Wild Grief. The announcement was made on May 2, 2026, during the 2026 Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The winners
