MAKEDA Braithwaite, a 24-year-old editor, has written a short science fiction story that was published by the American-based FIYAH-Literary Magazine.
Her short story titled, “The Pastry Shop Round the Bend,” was based on herbs used by Guyanese.

“There’s this Guyanese way of thinking, there is a herb, there’s a this for every single illness you have. It is basically using that and transforming it into a short story, witchcraft into magic… so it is about a witch who uses these natural herbs that we grow every day and she uses it to assist the village and then there is a competitor who comes to the village now who goes against the natural laws,” Braithwaite said during a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle.

She said that having her short story published by the magazine was overwhelming at first because the idea of being published alongside people who already had their debut novels and who are already known in the science fiction community, seemed unreal.

“At the back of my mind I was thinking that this story doesn’t belong here,” Braithwaite said.
She related that she saw that the magazine had a call for submission of stories, so she wrote it in accordance with their request.

She said that she didn’t expect anything to come out of it because she had submitted to several places before, local places as well, and was rejected.
“I was like okay if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, well that is normal,” the young editor said.

Braithwaite has been a lover of literary arts since primary school and writing has always been a hobby of hers which never really took the front burner in her life.
“I always thought practically, okay what am I going to do with fiction writing in Guyana?” she related.

FIYAH is a quarterly speculative fiction magazine that features stories by and about people of the African diaspora according to its website.
The magazine was awarded the Hugo Award, an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, at the World Science Fiction Convention. The Hugo is widely considered the premier award in science fiction.