Of all contest entries, Bush Bath is perhaps the embodiment of the 2025 festival contest theme, Remedies of Root. Penned by Brandon McIvor, it traces a man on a visit to Trinidad to see his dying mother, who abandoned him as a child. He delays the meeting, instead taking a symbolic "bush bath" in a forest pool to cleanse his pain. There, a recovered memory reveals his mother didn't save him from danger, but first let him go. As the story unfolds, McIvor's main character must decide whether to confront her with this painful truth or offer her peace.

Brandon Mc Ivor was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago and holds a BSc in English Literature from New York University. He currently teaches English in Ehime, Japan, while continuing to build a literary practice that explores the craft and circulation of storytelling. His work has appeared in The Caribbean Writer and in Akashic Books’ flash fiction series, among other publications. He was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Fiction Prize in 2020 for his work Finger, Spinster, Serial Killer. Both writer and marketer, Mc Ivor is deeply interested in the forms and voices through which stories are told, seeking to move audiences through fiction, poetry, and creative communication alike.