Local writers place second and third for Burt Award

The winners of the award were announced on Wednesday night at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port-of-Spain.

Viviana Prado-Nunez from Puerto Rico took the top prize and CA $10,000 (about TT $50,000) for her self-published book The Art of White Roses, Hosein placed second and won CA $7,000 (about TT $35,000) for his manuscript The Beast of Kukuyo and fellow Trinidadian Lisa Allen-Agostini placed third and won CA $5,000 (about TT $25,000) for her manuscript Waiting on the Bus.

Hosein, speaking yesterday during a telephone interview, said that while the monetary prize is very lucrative the “real prize” is that each winner will have a publisher for their manuscript and an initial run of 2,500 copies.

“Even if they had that alone and no money that would be great,” he added.

His manuscript, The Beast of Kukuyo, is a mystery set in a rural Indian community in Trinidad in 1992. When a student in a Standard Five class disappears one of their classmates sets out to discover what happened. Hosein said that he was unsure if his work would be published noting the length of his story and the deficit in Caribbean publishers.

He added that he was not sure foreign publishers would have been interested.

Hosein said he was glad there were two Trinidadian finalists this year and expressed hope that young adult writing, and writing in general, would be fostered and invested in a little more.

He explained that he started writing young adult content because of a lack of young readers.

“We have to have more of these out there not just to stimulate readers but writers.”