Anthony Vahni Capildeo - Reading & Conversation with Selina Guinness

We are thrilled that the truly remarkable Anthony Vahni Capildeo is able to join us for our 2026 festival. Capildeo is an acclaimed Trinidadian/Scottish poet and writer of non-fiction. A rare and highly original talent, their genre-defying work has captured the attention of both readers and scholars across the globe. 

Their many awards include the prestigious Forward Poetry Prize for best collection, the OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, the Windham-Campbell Prize and the Saltire National Poetry Award. Anthony Vahni Capildeo’s last poetry collection Polkadot Wounds was published to widespread acclaim and they arrive in Ireland hot on the heels of their non-fiction debut, Masqueraders: Selected Essays, published in July 2026. 

Writer and academic Selina Guinness is also a sheep farmer from neighbouring Tibradden. A long-time friend of Anthony Capildeo’s, this should prove to be an extraordinary and illuminating event.

Anthony Vahni Capildeo

Trinidadian Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction Anthony Vahni Capildeo FRSL is Professor at the University of York and an Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford. Capildeo's interests include traditional masquerade, silence, plurilingualism, and place. Their nine books and eight pamphlets have been recognized with awards including the Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry, the OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, the Cholmondeley Award, and the Forward Prize. Capildeo has served as a guest editor of a special ecopoetics issue of Stand magazine, a contributing editor at PN Review and the Caribbean Review of Books, a contributing advisor at Blackbox Manifold, and on numerous mentorship schemes and judging and award committees.