Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival- Short Fiction Story Competition

In a year when our festival becomes a Literary Botánica—a sanctuary of memory, resistance, and reimagining—we invite writers across the Caribbean and its diasporas to submit stories that act as remedies for the times we live in.

Roots anchor. Remedies mend. Stories do both.

This year’s BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest seeks new fiction that speaks to the urgent need for grounding and healing. Whether it is a tale of migration and return, an act of quiet rebellion, an ancestral recipe passed through generations, a rewilding of grief, or the reclaiming of forbidden memory, we are calling for stories that prescribe survival, illuminate resilience, and offer prayers for what endures.

BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize:

• All entrants must be of Caribbean heritage/of Caribbean descent

• Be a resident of the United States/Canada

• Be over the age of 18 years

• Self-published writers may apply

BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean:

• Exclusively open to unpublished and published writers who were born/raised and holding nationality in the Caribbean

• You may submit if you are currently on temporary assignment elsewhere in the world (except the US and Canada)

• Submitted stories must be original works of fiction

• Be over the age of 18 years

• All writers regardless of their publishing status may apply