“We had incredible audience numbers starting from Friday night,” Kwame Dawes, artistic director/event co-founder — Calabash International Literary Festival, told the Jamaica Observer.

Dawes said the event met all the other metrics, including patron feedback and the level of the participating writers. In addition, its digital footprint was ramped up via its Android and Apple apps, and social media, which saw the Calabash hashtag gaining 16 million hits.

“Our patrons have enjoyed it, many have thought it perfect and of great value, so as far as we’re concerned it’s been a good festival,” he added.

Dawes said the biennial festival ran smooth and on time.

“That is actually the highlight for me. All the writers were here, they came on time, they gave brilliant performances, the audience bought books and that makes me feel good about things,” he said.

While the festival had many highlights, including Protoje’s full-house performance on Friday night, to the multiple readings and open microphone events on Saturday, it was Sunday’s awarding of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize that held everyone’s attention. Vying for the prize were Faraaz Mahomed (South Africa), Parashar Kulkarni (India), Stefanie Seddon (UK), Lance Dowrich (Trinidad) and Tina Makereti (New Zealand).

Each writer was given five minutes to vocalise a section of his or her work, which they did to the occasional laugh and gracious closing applause. At the end, Kulkarni of India was victorious.

“It feels nice to be a part of it and also to win,” he said.

Kulkarni explained the prize was the push he needed to transition his novella into a full novel. Having visited Trinidad & Tobago, this was his first trek to Jamaica and he had nothing but praise for Calabash.

The event closed with a light-hearted musical take on the weekend’s theme Fruu-ish-aan as the Calabash Acoustic Ensemble performed a medley of reggae songs with food as their theme.