Makeda Braithwaite achieves lifelong dream of being a published writer

It is perhaps too early to say whether she would live up to her first name, which means ‘Greatness’, but Makeda Braithwaite is already making her name as a writer of note in the new generation of Guyanese creatives.
She’s a Guyana Prize third-place winner and finalist. Still in her twenties, she’s now a published writer. Her poetry collection, ‘Go Fish, Go in The Pack’, is being published by Bamboo Tree Press, an independent, Trinidad-based press that is run by poet Paula Obe. The cover is illustrated by her father: artist, folklorist, and graphic novelist Barrington Braithwaite.
Makeda received the news around the same time as the 2023 Guyana Prize finalists were being announced. “It’s surreal. I’m still waiting for them to change their mind,” she told Guyana Times.
While one would expect such news to evoke elation, Makeda says she also felt “horror”.
“It’s always horrifying to think of people criticising your work,” she explained. “It’s a type of vulnerability that’s like letting a wound open for the world, particularly with poetry, which I feel is almost soul-bearing.”
‘Go Fish, Go In The Pack’ is a collection of 70 poems, some of which Makeda wrote when she was still a 16-year-old attending St. Joseph’s High.
“I believe my poetry is fresh, because it comes from me and my own unique perspective,” she says. “I write as a Guyanese woman experiencing contemporary Guyana. I dip into our folklore and contemporary issues/culture. I also utilise Guyanese Creole, and slip between that and formal English.”

Dedicated to her craft
Makeda knew from quite an early age that she wanted to be a writer. “I first knew when I was 10. I think I was drawing, and realised I wanted to set a story to the artwork,” she said.
Coming from a family of readers and writers, there was always something to read in her house. “I remember being obsessed with Twilight at around 11, and my father telling me that Anne Rice (Interview With A Vampire author) was the contemporary ‘vampire’ writer of the last century. This made me check out her work, and I became a quick full-hearted fan as a young teenager,” she disclosed.

Like her dad, Makeda has a love for the surreal. That was expressed in her short story collection, ‘An Anthology of Shivers’ (Guyana Prize Third Place Fiction Winner, 2022). The collection includes the unsettling ‘The Pastry Shop Around The Corner’, which Makeda describes as being ‘an ode to magic, blackness, and Caribbean food.’ This short story was published in 2022 in Fiya Literary Magazine.
“While a lot of older work is filled with flaws of political incorrectness and downright ignorance of the time, I believe there is still a lot of golden inspiration to be drawn from these works,” she said. “I try to read something new every other week or so, something from a genre I don’t read and (from) a comfort genre.”
She also adheres to the advice of authors such as Stephen King, that a writer seeking to hone her craft must also write a lot.
“I try to write something every day. I have notepads everywhere — in my work bag, at my desk, at home; I even jot in my notes app on my phone,” she said. “I have hundreds of documents with just a paragraph written in them. Ideas come from any and everything: a conversation, a daydream, or a laugh! Everything comes from another thing. Ideas come from everything!” she explained.
“I am more focused on fiction writing, but I do happen to write more poetry. I find both are equally challenging for different reasons. Poetry is quicker, but more tedious. Fiction is longer, but allows you more room to edit and fix,” she disclosed.
Her favourite poets include Merle Collins, Adrienne Rich, and Derek Walcott. Among the writers she’s drawn to are Anne Rice; Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat, and Samantha Mills. Books that have inspired her are Rotten Pomerack by Merle Collins; Breath, Eyes, and Memories by Edwidge Danticat; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence.
Her mentors include “every English teacher I’ve ever had, from St. Joseph’s High into my University career; starting with my mother Donna and father Barry. There was also Professor Funso Aiyejina who had mentored me through a Commonwealth programme during the pandemic for short story writers,” she disclosed. This year is shaping up to be an extremely productive one for Makeda. She’s working on a contemporary novel as well as another poetry collection.
She encourages aspiring writers to “keep writing! Keep practising, and most of all, do not write in a vacuum. The writer’s greatest asset is the ability to never take rejections or edits personally.” (Michael Jordan)