Didos Prize

Dido, a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation, runs away to join Henry Morgan's privateer fleet and find the treasure that will allow her to buy her family's freedom. What she doesn't bargain on is falling in love with El Negro, a pirate captain with no particular yen for a long-lasting relationship. As Morgan sails the Spanish Main, sacking first, El Puerto del Principe in Cuba, and then the great city of Porto Bello in Panama, Dido becomes a valued member of El Negro's crew. After the ships return to Jamaica, Dido thinks she will never see the pirate captain again, but he comes to her rescue when she is in peril. They flee deep into the Blue Mountains, but El Negro knows he will never be safe on the island. Together, Dido and her pirate, head back out to sea to find a place where they can live and love in freedom.

Eugenia Oneal lives in the British Virgin Islands and wrote her first poem at the age of 5 and her first short story when she was 9. Three of her short stories have been published in The Caribbean Writer and, in 1995, she participated in the Caribbean Writers Summer Institute at the University of Miami. One of her more recent short stories appeared in the Black Expressions Anthology, The Heart of Our Community. Her first book was From the Field to the Legislature: A History of Women in the VIrgin Islands, which was based on her master's thesis for the University of the West Indies and was published by Greenwood Press in 2001. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and From The Heart Romance Writers. Her Website is www.eugeniaoneal.com.