History

In 2011 the Commonwealth Foundation undertook some research into the state of publishing in Caribbean. The results highlighted the need for greater attention to literary publishing, more training and development opportunities for writers, stronger technical skills, and focused promotion and distribution initiatives to overcome the geographical challenges.

In April 2012 Commonwealth Writers, The British Council and the NGC Bocas Literary Festival joined forces to launch the Caribbean Literature Action Group, known as CALAG. It’s a results-oriented action group of professionals from the Caribbean literary sector whose aim is to develop and implement a number of initiatives to support an infrastructure for literary publishing within the region and to link the Caribbean’s writers to the rest of the world; for example, a regional online hub to connect writers and publishers, and mentoring and editing schemes. This website was launched at BOCAS Lit Fest 2013 and CALAG was renamed CaribLit. For its second year Commonwealth Writers continues to be the main funder of CaribLit with support from the British Council. BOCAS Lit Fest remains a working partner of the initiative.