From a longlist of nine books in the categories of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction, the Prize judges have chosen three genre winners. Announced on 1 April, 2015, these three books now form the shortlist for the final award. Sounding Ground, by the St. Lucian writer Vladimir Lucien, is the poetry winner. Jamaican Marlon James’s novel A Brief History of Seven Killings is the winner in the fiction category, and fellow Jamaican Olive Senior’s Dying to Better Themselves was chosen from the non-fiction list.
Sounding Ground — Vladimir Lucien’s debut book — explores social and cultural boundaries in the poet’s home island, moving between considerations of bloodlines both familial and linguistic. “His poems have the kind of life-energy to be found hidden in any cubic metre of fertile soil,” write the Prize judges. “His language makes inspired use of various kinds and registers of creole, which are always clearly distinguishable, and crucial to the purposes of the individual poem.
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