Los Angeles, CA – December 8th, 2021. Syllble Studios a science fiction and fantasy production company based in Los Angeles, CA is proud to announce the release of three stories from the Caribbean Sky Islands World in collaboration with Moko Magazine, a non-profit journal based in the Virgin Islands. Moko publishes fiction, poetry, visual arts, and non-fiction essays that reflect a Caribbean heritage or experience.
Read part of the introduction Founder Fabrice Guerrier writes in Moko:
“For thousands of years, writers have blackened pages by themselves, sitting in the proverbial corner, penning works of fiction. Syllble wants to transform that paradigm from the solitary nature of writing as it is seen to a unique social experience for writers, by allowing them to produce new worlds they can explore together through their own stories. As a sci-fi and fantasy production house, Syllble was born of the desire to give underrepresented writers and artists a leg up. We believe that stories told from multiple perspectives within a uniquely imagined fictional world can inspire collaboration and deep change in our society. The times we live in today demand it, as we are faced with impossible crises and old, outdated, crumbling models that desperately need to be reimagined. This partnership between Syllble and Moko is underpinned by one idea: a shared fictional world where black and brown Caribbean writers can come together to create.”
“I was born and raised in Haiti; Celeste Rita Baker is from the Virgin Islands; and Tonya Liburd is from Trinidad and Tobago. The three of us gathered together over a few months and designed a unique fictional universe deeply inspired by Caribbean culture and society—synthesizing its folklore and mythology and shared history that culminated in a seventeen-page “Story Bible” that housed the world. Thereafter, we three invited Joanne C. Hillhouse from Antigua and Barbuda to write within this world.”
About the Caribbean Sky Islands:
“Enter a fantastical world that has established the ideal educational system, created a matriarchal society based on free love, and engaged in new ways to deal with conflict via music and restorative justice. A world inclusive to multisex people, queer and neural divergent people. Inhabit a new economic model that honors its people and honors a newfangled pantheon of gods who are inherently altruistic. Here, the more good a person does, the more raw power these gods will lend them. Here, is a whole new paradigm.” Read the rest here and read the Caribbean Sky Island world profile on the Syllble site.
Four Black Caribbean speculative fiction writers and creators:
Celeste Rita Baker is a Virgin Islander. Her stories have been included in The Caribbean Writer, Moko, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and other publications. She is a 2021 World Fantasy Award winner for her short story ”Glass Bottle Dancer” in Lightspeed. She is a proud 2019 graduate of Clarion West Science Fiction Writers Workshop. Her website is celesteritabaker.com
Tonya Liburd is from Trinidad and Tobago. She is the Editor of Expanse Magazine. She has been nominated for the 2017 and 2018 Rhysling Awards, and has been longlisted in the 2015 Carter V. Cooper(Vanderbilt)/Exile Short Fiction Competition.
Joanne C. Hillhouse is from Antigua and Barbuda and is the author of several books of fiction. Hillhouse’s books – On Becoming (2003), the novellas The Boy from Willow Bend (2003) and Dancing Nude in the Moonlight (2004), the children’s books Fish Outta Water and With Grace, the novel Oh Gad! (2012), and the young adult novel Musical Youth (2014), which was runner-up for the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature.
Fabrice Guerrier is the Haitian-American founder of Syllble, a sci-fi and fantasy production house. He is a writer and poet whose work has appeared in several publications, including the PEN America Blog, Public Pool, and Blavity.
The three stories were released on the historic 20th issue of Moko Caribbean Arts and Letters Magazine. See a message from Managing Editor Andre Bagoo:
“In a world full of long-running, online literary magazines, a 20th issue might not seem like much, either. But as we publish this issue, we do so mindful of the challenges faced by the Caribbean literary and artistic community, challenges that have often rendered efforts at serving the Caribbean space – its many readers, writers, artists and art-lovers – difficult, if not seemingly impossible. The internet, though, has changed things. (As much as it has also eaten away at traditional publishing it has made connections possible.) And we are today aware of how much we have to be grateful for as a part of a vibrant, diverse and engaged art-loving community, as well as individual human beings. Two years into a deadly pandemic, we continue to experience twists and turns. But we’re still here.”