Against a backdrop of growing global concern over climate vulnerability in small island developing states, a young writer from Dominica has emerged as the winner of the 2026 Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Youth Short Story Competition. Twenty-two-year-old Sherdina Antoine secured first place with her narrative *Weathering Us*, outpacing 172 competing submissions drawn from 14 different CARICOM member states across the Caribbean region.
Notably, Dominica earned a second spot in the competition’s top 10 rankings: another local writer, Kijuana Charity Bruno, earned recognition for her work *The Reef Keepers of Anse Chaudière*, marking a strong showing for the small island nation in this regional creative initiative. The contest, which opened for submissions on July 27, 2026, was specifically designed to invite creative input from young people aged 18 to 25 who are either citizens or residents of CARICOM countries, asking them to craft stories around the theme: “Imagine a climate-secure future for the world. Inspired by the Caribbean.”
Founded to elevate youth voices on critical climate issues, the competition provides a dedicated platform for emerging Caribbean writers to share their perspectives on climate change, community resilience, and the kind of sustainable future they envision for their region. Alongside Antoine’s win, the final results name Priya Ramdeo of Trinidad and Tobago as second place winner for her story *Mas For The Living Sea*, who will take home a tablet as her prize. Third place went to Kaitlyn Griffith of Barbados for *The Coastline of Tomorrow*, with a Kindle awarded as the prize for this placement. Antoine’s first-place prize is a cutting-edge MacBook Neo.
Danelle De Coteau-Campbell, Head of Communications at the CCCCC, highlighted that both the volume and creative quality of this year’s submissions made clear how deeply young people across the Caribbean care about the climate future of their home region. “We were encouraged by the response to this competition, with 173 young people from across 14 Member States sharing their perspectives on what a climate-resilient future could mean for our region,” De Coteau-Campbell shared in an official press statement. “Beyond the number of submissions, what stood out was the thought, creativity, and awareness reflected in the stories. Young people are not only experiencing the realities of climate change; they also have important perspectives on the future we are working to build. Through this competition, we wanted to create a space for those perspectives to be expressed and amplified.”
The full list of remaining top 10 finalists includes four additional writers from Trinidad and Tobago—Rayn Cooper for *A Road Trip of Change*, Priya Jaggernath for *The Panyard that Saved the World*, Aaliyah Bruce for *What I Used To Be*, and Venus Abass for *The Weather in Her Hands*—alongside Jadique Edwards of Barbados for *FEE FI FO FUM* and Philecia Chambers of Jamaica for *A City Beneath The Heat*. All 10 finalists will receive formal recognition, custom certificates, and official CCCCC promotional packages, with their work featured across the centre’s official website and social media channels. The top five stories will receive further distribution: they will be published on the CCCCC’s public platform caribbeanclimate.org and adapted into professionally produced audio versions to expand their reach.
Submissions to the 2026 competition arrived from all 14 participating CARICOM member states: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. To ensure fair and expert evaluation, the CCCCC assembled a diverse judging panel made up of respected figures from Caribbean literature and cultural sectors. Panel members included Barbadian writer and creative producer Ayesha GibsonGill; Cindy Allman, Jamaican book reviewer and founder of #ReadCaribbean Month; Belizean author and educator David Nicolas Ruiz; Dike Noel, Manager of Communications at the CARICOM Secretariat; and Montserratian-Barbadian writer, arts educator and academic Dr Yvonne Weekes.