(Photo credit: Caroline Forbes)

Jamaican-born, Toronto-based poet and novelist Olive Senior has been named winner of the 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in the fiction category for her novel The Pain Tree (Cormorant Books). The win pits Senior against poetry category winner Tiphanie Yanique and non-fiction winner Jacqueline Bishop for the top prize, to be announced on April 30 at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

Senior was one of three Canadians longlisted for the award, alongside Scotiabank Giller Prize winners André Alexis and Austin Clarke.