Makeda K. Braithwaite releases new poetry collection: ‘Go Fish: Go in De Pack’

Jul 14, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

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Kaieteur News – The latest work of talented and well established Guyanese author and poet, Makeda K. Braithwaite, is a collection of poems that covers an impressive range of subjects. With the absence of a specific theme to restrict the content, the St. Joseph’s High School alumna is free to speak her mind on an array of seven different but equally interesting topics. As such, the name of this collection, Go Fish: Go in De Pack seems to be a witty nod to its diversity and range.

The 26-year-old poet is an accomplished and experienced writer, whose literary journey truly began during her time in secondary school, when she began to write fan fiction literature, eventually venturing into original work and poetry writing.

She speaks fondly of her English teacher, Ms. Michelle Cummings, and the support that she provided to her while she studied at St. Joseph’s High School. However, the seeds of her love for literature were sown much earlier, as she relates that she recognizes four core mentors in he

r life, with her parents being two of them; she credits them as her first teachers and critics.

She went on to attend the University of Guyana, where she acquired a degree in English Literature, and proceeded to embark on a number of professional endeavours, the most recent of which is her role as Submissions Editor at the award-winning American speculative magazine; Uncanny.

It is during these professional experiences that Braithwaite says she encountered her other two mentors: the late Professor Funso Aiyejina, who was a prolific, award-winning writer and Professor at University of the West Indies, St. Augustine; and Eugenia Triantafyllou, who is an internationally nominated author with a prolific list of publications. She connected with them through different mentorship programmes.

She says her writing greatly benefited from Aiyejina, due to his meticulous critique, and from Triantafyllou, she says she acquired an incredible amount of knowledge about the publishing industry.

These experiences all culminated in the 2022 release of the author’s first published work, The Pastry Shop Round the Bend, in the Hugo-award winning Fiyah Literary Magazine Summer Issue of that year. It was fitting that the young, Guyanese poet would step onto the scene with a short story about Guyanese culture and cuisine.

From that point, Braithwaite continued to master her craft, becoming more intentional with her writing and paying more attention to detail in terms of the structure of her works.

Now, with the release of Go Fish: Go in De Pack on June 6^th of this year, this stage of the poet’s evolution seems to be complete, as this work is a compilation of poems that spans the formative years of her young adult life.

Braithwaite says that she began working on this collection when she was in sixth form of secondary school, and continued to add to it for a number of years after she graduated. This perhaps explains the variety of topics covered in the work, which is the factor that makes the collection so interesting, as there is sure to be something for everyone to identify with between those pages.

There are seven sections to the collection: the first deals with love; the second with contemporary globalization and the afterbirth of colonialism; the fifth considers the awkwardness of ageing in your twenties; the fourth explores the disappointment of heartbreak; the fifth deals with the idea of womanhood and the cost of it; the sixth is steeped in the world of the speculative; and the final one explores the realm of death and the heaviness of grief.

For many readers, that final section may be both emotionally impactful and relatable, and Braithwaite says that her favorite piece in the collection is one titled ‘Hymns’ from that very section.

“‘Hymns’ is my favourite piece and the last poem of the collection. It was written the very night I found out a very, very close family friend passed away. It was written in anger, in grief, in pain and denial,” the author said of the poem.

When asked what she intended to achieve with the release of this project, Braithwaite gave a true artist’s response: “I just hope people enjoy it and review it. Oh, and buy it!”

Moving forward, Makeda K. Braithwaite will continue to build upon her already solid portfolio, as she is set to release a science fiction short story, Water Weight, as part of an anthology that features prominent international writers such as Wole Talabi and Eugen Bacon.

Go Fish: Go in De Pack is currently available in digital format on Amazon and physical copies will be available in local bookstores by the end of August.

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• Go Fish: Go in De Pack, Guyanese author and poet, Makeda K. Braithwaite, releases, St. Joseph’s High School

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