Claudine Guillon’s *Harbour of Small Promises* won the Blue Banyan Prize in Kingston on Friday, after 592,913 valid public ballots helped propel it past five finalists. The turnout dwarfed the prize’s previous high of 76,400 and delivered Guillon J$10 million (about €58,000), along with one of the Caribbean’s most talked-about literary honours.
The win has left the prize’s jury divided and book-industry figures arguing over whether readers should have such a large say. The public vote supplied 40% of the final score under rules adopted in January; the jury’s assessment counted for the rest. Guillon’s novel led the public ballot, while jurors had ranked another finalist first.
A ballot bigger than the jury
At Friday’s ceremony, Guillon, 48, held her book above her head as the room erupted in cheers. “This is a door flung open for the people who read on buses, in shops, after work,” she said. “They have made a book from our streets the book of the year.”
The prize council said 684,221 ballots were submitted during the three-week vote, with 91,308 removed after checks for duplicate or ineligible entries. Kelly Rezende, the council’s director, said an external accounting firm had verified the count and found no evidence of organised vote-buying. “The numbers are extraordinary, but the tally was checked line by line,” she said.
They have made a book from our streets the book of the year.
Claudine Guillon, author
The win was celebrated by readers gathered outside downtown bookshops, where copies sold out by late morning on Saturday. The novel follows stallholders fighting to preserve a covered market as a resort plan advances; its scenes draw on Kingston’s crowded lanes and the bargaining that keeps many family businesses afloat.
But James C. Nadarajah, the jury chair, said the public weighting had changed the award’s character. He said jurors had favoured a formally ambitious novel by another finalist and would have chosen it under the prize’s previous method. “A prize should discover a book, not measure the reach of a campaign,” he said, adding that he would not chair next year’s jury unless the rules were reconsidered.
Who gets to cast a vote
Supporters say the turnout shows that Caribbean readers want a hand in choosing which books travel beyond the region. Esteban Nava, a publisher whose imprint backed one of the finalists, called Guillon’s victory “a joyous answer to anyone who says serious books have no audience”. He said the international ballot also reflected readers across the Caribbean diaspora.
Critics counter that a large online vote can favour authors with the biggest mailing lists, not necessarily the strongest books. Amanda Ankkuri, who runs an independent bookshop in Kingston, said customers were delighted by the result but worried about the precedent. “The celebration is real,” she said. “So is the question of whether a prize can stay fair when votes become its loudest measure.”
The controversy also puts pressure on Blue Banyan’s biggest backer, a wealthy publishing investor whose J$38 million (about €220,000) contribution helped fund this year’s ceremony and prize programme. The council says that money did not buy influence over the ballot. It has promised to publish a review of the voting rules by December, while Guillon’s publisher prepares a second print run.
