Celeste Mohammed

Look it— the UK cover of Ever Since We Small!  I’m thrilled to finally share this gorgeous design with you. So reminiscent of the cover of the Caribbean edition…yet so very different. This UK edition launches 16 October 2025, just in time for UK Black History Month.  📖 Pre-order now through @jacarandabooks (link in bio) or Amazon UK. And what are UK writers saying about the book? Check it out: ‘'… a rich and captivating novel-in-stories, with beguiling characters and an emotional pull that made me want to swallow the book whole.’' – Jendella Benson, author of Hope & Glory and All That We've Got @jendella ‘'… Every character stands in their own power…’' – Yvonne Bailey-Smith, author of The Day I Fell Off My Island @smiyvo “...Mohammed writes in a rich and vivid language where myth and gods cross the oceans all the way to Trinidad where they acquire a Caribbean sensitivity.” – Isabelle Dupuy, author Living the Dream @babchou45 #CoverReal #EverSinceWeSmall #ESWS #CelesteMohammed #CaribbeanLit #CaribbeanStories #ReadCaribbean #BookRecs #Bookstagram

Dear Reader, I promised you I would. And I keep my promises 😘 For 4 years, you asked when the next book was coming. For 4 years, I said: soon. Now, at last, the wait is over. Here is the cover of EVER SINCE WE SMALL Designed by @nicholashugginscreative Published by @jacarandabooks 📚 In a radical publishing move, Ever Since We Small will be released in the Caribbean FIRST, ahead of the UK & Commonwealth release in October. This is Caribbean storytelling, led by Caribbean creatives, brought to you by a Black-owned, independent UK press. And here's another promise: just wait a little while longer- it drops on May 4 - and you will love this story as much as I do. #EverSinceWeSmall #CoverReveal #ReadCaribbean #TrinidadAndTobago #CaribbeanLit #BlackOwnedPublishing #NewRelease

In the fires of hope and prayer. History has a way of reminding us why we, Caribbean-based writers, must tell our own stories — carefully, truthfully, and without permission. Ever Since We Small is published in the US on January 13, 2026. There will be no American book tour. I trust the work will find its readers nonetheless. Love & New Year blessings, C

The Mother of All Interviews. The big one. Where I talk meh mind!🎤 Thank you to CNC3 Television and Ryan Bachoo for this segment, which aired tonight. We dug into Caribbean Literature - and the life of a Trini writer. Yuh know yuh girl does talk plain.😉 LINK IN BIO to view 🔗 It was truly a lovely way to end my Mother's Day, watching this with my Mom and my daughter beside me. I hope you all had a lovely and loving day. #CaribbeanLiterature #WritingLife

Some folks are a legend in their own mind. Marina is a legend in her own time. Founder of the Bocas Lit Fest @bocaslitfest , Marina Salandy is moving on, and tonight was her farewell lime. It was beautiful to see so many of the lives she’s touched gathered together in one place. When people like Marina move on, we reach for words like indefatigable and passionate. We call them a force of nature. All of those apply to Marina — and then some. Her contribution to the literary arts in Trinidad and Tobago cannot be overstated. And as a Creative herself, she brought a depth of understanding to the industry that is rare. She understood not just books, but writers. Not just programming, but possibility. Not just culture, but the fragile ecosystem of relationships needed to sustain it. Bon voyage, Marina. Class is class.

Native to Trinidad, the coral snake is red and black. While shy, it is dangerous if provoked. #WalkOnBy

I always kiss and tell. 💋 Nicholas Laughlin — a quiet man — caught in a public ambush.🫣 Every year, this is our @bocaslitfest tradition.🤣 2026’s theme was All Together Now — and by all accounts, it was a spectacular collaborative success. The crowning of the new OCM Bocas Prize winner is always one of my favourite, most nostalgic Saturday nights of the year. Congratulations to Tessa McWatt on her memoir, The Snag.🎉 And on Sunday, I got to spend time with some of the literary people I most admire, pero... Debí tirar más fotos de cuando te tuve. Debí darte más besos. 💋📚 Cheers to more Bocas Lit Fests!

This year’s #CWprize shortlist includes six outstanding stories from the Caribbean region, with shortlisted writers from Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. Cosmata Lindie (@cosmatalindie ), a Guyanese writer and visual artist, returns to the Prize after being shortlisted in 2024. Her 2026 story, ‘The Metamorphosis of Miss Alice’, follows a juvenile delinquent whose encounters with a frail, forgotten old woman lead him to believe in the power of transformation. ‘Plenty Time’, by Trinidadian writer Celeste Mohammed (@celestemohammed ), centres on an act of kindness between an elderly widow and another woman in a struggle for dignity. Formerly a lawyer, Celeste is now an award-winning full-time writer, editor and ghostwriter. She was also shortlisted in 2024. In ‘The Serpent in the Grove’, Trinidadian writer Jamir Nazir centres rural Trinidad in a story steeped in desire, poverty and dread. It explores betrayal, survival and the force of a woman’s will. Jamir has published several books and is known for his poetry. Jason Dookeran, a Trinidadian writer based in Buenos Aires, is the author of ‘Pom Pom Peedeem Pom’, which follows a bassist’s attempt to escape his past—only to find it pursuing him across the sea as a persistent rhythm. His work draws on Trinidadian dialect, folklore, and the interplay between tradition and contemporary life. Jochelle Greaves Siew, a Trinidadian PhD candidate, has been published in academic journals. Her story, ‘River Mouth’, is her first writing competition submission and explores the mysterious disappearance of several girls in a fishing community. She plans to complete her first women’s fiction novel after finishing her PhD. ‘Pot Hound Republic’, by Roger-Mark De Souza (@rogermarkde ), is told from the perspective of a stray dog wandering the streets and markets of Port of Spain. Born in Trinidad and now based in Washington, D.C., his work explores diasporic life. He is currently completing a novel-in-stories tracing interconnected lives between the Caribbean and its global diaspora. We hope you enjoy reading these stories when they are published later this year. /short-story-prize/

📣 We're proud to announce the official cohort of The Bocas-Jacaranda Short Story Intensive! Tanya Batson-Savage 🇯🇲 Darryn Boodan 🇹🇹 Astrid Casimire 🇹🇹 Kevin Garbaran 🇬🇾 Jolyn Gayle 🇯🇲 Sio Lyons 🇻🇮 Kirese Narinesingh 🇹🇹 Zephrine Royer 🇩🇲 / 🇲🇶 Christina Katrina Smith 🇧🇧 Rea Vanterpool 🇻🇬 ✍️These ten participants from across the Anglophone Caribbean are embarking on a rigorous, comprehensive seven-week programme, facilitated by 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature winner @celestemohammed , hosted by the @bocaslitfest with @jacarandabooks . 🙌Celeste couldn’t be more enthused about this group, saying, “I’m thrilled by the range of voices and the seriousness of intent already evident in this cohort. Warm congratulations to all ten writers — we are fully assembled and ready to work. I have every confidence that unforgettable stories will emerge.” 🙏We received a bumper crop of applications to The Bocas-Jacaranda Short Story Intensive. It was our honour to read each one carefully, and we are deeply grateful to everyone who took the time and energy to submit their work.👏 #bocas2026 #bocasacademy @savageinsight @astridcasimire @kevin.garbaran @jojo_babeans @leavekiresealone @zephrineroyer @christinathewordsmith @ree__vee #caribbeanwriters #shortstoryintensive

Lightning CAN strike twice in the same place. ⚡️⚡️ My short story “Plenty Time” has been shortlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.🙌🏾 It means so much to see this story recognised by the Commonwealth Foundation, and to represent the Caribbean on this year’s shortlist, which includes several Trinis and a Guyanese writer — Guyana is a place close to my heart and literary interests. Warm congratulations to the other 24 shortlisted writers. Selected from a pool of 7,806 entries from across the Commonwealth this year, we should all be so proud of this remarkable achievement. Thank you to @cwfcreatives and @commonwealthorg for this honour. Is only God's grace, oui! #CWprize2026

Another one! Official news has dropped. Legends of the Lake, my forthcoming picture book about the many histories and stories surrounding Trinidad's Pitch Lake, has just been announced in Publishers Weekly’s Rights Report. It has been great fun working with my editor at @greenwillowbooks @harperkids As a Trini mummy, it means so much to share our local stories and our landscape with children everywhere. Aunty Celeste love the kids. ❤️ #LegendsOfTheLake #KidLit #CaribbeanLiterature #TrinidadAndTobago #PublishingNews

📢STORY TIME!📢 🇹🇹 💔🇻🇪 A stone’s skip across the water from Venezuela, the fictional Trinidadian town of Pleasantview is the site of interlocking ills: poverty, violence, corruption, crime, and the sexual exploitation of Venezuelans fleeing to Trinidad in search of a better life. PLEASANTVIEW by @celestemohammed is an anthology of linked short stories about the town’s denizens. The first story, “Prologue: The Dragon’s Mouth (Bocas del Dragón),” captures with lyrical precision, humor and heart the tale of a Venezuelan woman and her jailbreaking Trinidadian lover. Join me at @center4fiction on June 3 to talk about the fraught state of Trini-Venezuelan relations through the lens of this modern classic. #caribbean #readcaribbean #venezuela🇻🇪 #trinidad