Bermuda Literary Awards

The Bermuda Literary Awards were inaugurated by the Bermuda Government in 1999 to honour literary achievement by Bermuda’s writers, and are administered by the Department of Culture. The aims of the Bermuda Government in offering these awards are:

  • To recognize significant contributions to the development of Bermudian culture
  • To honour creative works and uphold the writer’s role in society
  • To preserve and promote the highest standards of Bermudian literature

2023 Bermuda Literary Awards

Have you published written work between 1 February 2018 and 1 February 2023? Please consider submitting your work for the 2023 Bermuda Literary Awards.

Find below the rules for the awards (PDF) and the nomination form (PDF).

ALL NOMINATIONS ARE DUE 18 AUGUST 2023.

A call for nominations is issued once every five to six years; publications can be nominated by authors, publishers, members of the public, and by the judges of the Literary Awards. Eligibility for each prize is outlined in the call for nominations.

The Department of Culture Salutes the Previous Winners of the Bermuda Literary Awards Competition:

Brian Burland Prize for Fiction

  • Fried White Grunts by F. Colin Duerden (2018)
  • Goree: Point of Departure by Angela Barry (2013)
  • Endangered Species and Other Stories by Angela Barry (2007)
  • A Ballad of Orange Valley by Rawle Frederick (2007)
  • That Was Then by Patrice Frith Hayward (2001)

Prize for Non-Fiction

  • Island Flames by Jonathan D. Smith (2018)
  • Bermuda and the Struggle for Reform by Walton Brown, Jr. (2013)
  • Bermuda: Five Centuries by Rosemary Jones (2007)
  • Nothin’ but a Pond Dog by Llewellyn Emery (2001)

Cecile N. Musson Prize for Poetry

  • Pilgrimage by Paul Maddern (2018)
  • The Beachcomber’s Report by Paul Maddern (2013)
  • Zephyrs by Cecile Musson Smith (2001)

Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Fiction

  • Girlcott by Florenz Webbe Maxwell (2018)
  • The Lost Island of Tamarind by Nadia Aguiar (2013)
  • Daddy and I Explore… Series by David Chapman (2013)
  • Nonsuch Summer by Janet Wingate (2007)
  • St. Nicholas and the Tub by Brian Burland (2001)

Prize for Drama and Screenwriting

  • Me and Jezebel  by Lucinda Spurling (2018)
  • Emancipation: A Love Story by Kim Dismont Robinson (2013)
  • Island Sistahs by Patrice Frith Hayward (2001)

Prize for Cultural Merit

  • Pembroke as part of “Bermuda’s Architectural Heritage Series” by Clarence V.H. Maxwell (2018)

Founder’s Award

  • Chained on the Rock by Cyril Outerbridge Packwood (2018)
  • Brian Burland, body of work (2001)