Antigua’s Amina Washington Longlisted for 2026 Elizabeth Nunez Literary Prize

Antigua and Barbuda writers Amina Washington and Joanne C. Hillhouse have been longlisted for the 2026 Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean, placing two local writers among those competing for recognition in the regional short-fiction contest.

Washington was selected for her story “Elmo,” while Hillhouse earned her place on the longlist with “Holiday J’ouvert,” according to the list released by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival.

The annual competition seeks to identify and promote distinctive Caribbean literary voices and is open to writers who reside and work in the Caribbean, including both published and unpublished authors. Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival

Washington and Hillhouse are among writers representing territories across the region, including Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

The competition began in 2019 as an initiative targeting unpublished writers of Caribbean descent in the North American diaspora. It was expanded in 2020 to include a separate award specifically for writers based in the Caribbean.

The two competitions are now run under the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival’s Short Fiction Story Contest. The companion Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize is geared toward writers of Caribbean heritage living in the United States and Canada.

Both awards carry the name of the late Trinidadian-born novelist and professor Elizabeth Nunez, a prominent Caribbean-American literary figure who was closely associated with the festival and advocated for greater recognition of Caribbean and African American writers.

The festival says the competition is intended not only to recognize strong writing but also to increase writers’ visibility and their access to broader literary networks and resources. BCLF

Washington and Hillhouse will now await the next stage of judging as the longlist is narrowed in the search for the 2026 winner.

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