Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

The World Science Fiction Convention is the largest science fiction and fantasy (SFF) Convention in the world and is home to one of the most prestigious awards in the genre, the Hugo Awards. Local SFF writer Brandon O’Brien plans to attend this year’s conference in Dublin, once he can find the financing to go.

O’Brien is the poetry editor for FIYAH Literary Magazine, a US-based Black SFF online magazine which focuses on SFF and fantasy from across the African Diaspora. The magazine has been nominated for a Hugo Award in the category of Best Semi-Prozine, and O’Brien wants to be able to represent the literary team at the awards ceremony. He said “FIYAH was formed almost two years ago in response to low publication numbers of stories by Black writers in SFF outlets, because while there was a wealth of talented writers of colour telling really meaningful stories which were noticed and valued, people weren’t making space for it. So some talented Black writers, like L.D. Lewis, Troy Wiggins, Justina Ireland and Davaun Sanders, came together and worked hard to carve out space for Black science fiction. I’m grateful it exists, and that as the poetry editor, I get to give a little spotlight to some of the great SFF poetry that Black writers around the world are writing.”

O’Brien attended the 2018 WorldCon in Helsinki, Finland, and said it was inspiring to find out that people wanted to see more Trinidadian and Caribbean sci-fi. “It’s hard when you’re on the ‘outside’ of some creative communities to feel like you belong, especially for writers from the Caribbean, because we have so much to share but it can feel like no one notices us amongst everyone else. So actually being there with so many writers I admired and whose work affected me, made me feel I was actually a part of that community. I was on a panel on Caribbean science fiction, and the audience was literally asking for names, eager for more and more people to read, because they may not have ever noticed how many talented Caribbean writers there are. I want so badly to go back and continue advocating for Caribbean writing in that space.”
He said as a black, Caribbean speculative fiction writer, he has learned that people are eager to hear the Caribbean perspective of the future. “SFF is very good at asking ‘what if?’ questions about our past and our future that make us reconsider what it means to live in the world right now. That means the genre needs as many perspectives – black, Caribbean, queer, disabled, – as possible, so we can get as many images of the future as possible and imagine all the ways in which we can possibly make our world better. I’ve had the good fortune of meeting many writers, editors, and readers who want to make room for those perspectives, and are eager to read from communities they may not necessarily have ever seen work from.”

O’Brien, who has always wanted to be a writer by profession, said it is freeing to be able to call himself a SFF writer, a performance poet and a published writer. “It’s a wonderful feeling not only to tell the stories that you want to tell, but to know other people are reading it and sharing it with others. I have short stories and poetry in magazines such as Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Strange Horizons, CULTUREGO, sx salon, Reckoning, Anathema, and Apex Magazine, as well as some anthologies, such as Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, and New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean. I’m also writing a serial novel called How To Unmake It In Anglia, through Broken Eye Books, and the first four chapters are available on the publisher’s Patreon page. Most Trinis know me first as a spoken word poet, and a lot of that has been because of my work with The 2 Cents Movement, which has been really committed to helping poets grow, especially young poets, and using the art form as a tool for outreach in schools and communities. I’m grateful to be a part of that team, and to use the work to hopefully help young people find their voice and share their own stories.”

As part of his fundraising efforts, O’Brien will be holding a solo show, Distress Signals, on July 12, at the Little Carib Theatre. “This show is me attempting to take some of these kinds of stories about how we see ourselves in the past and the future, how we turn legacies of loss into legacies of hope both on the national and the personal level, and translate those stories onto the stage. Many people know me first as a performance poet, but I want to bring the speculative part of me to the stage as well, and challenge myself to tell those kinds of stories through performance as well. I can’t wait to share these stories, and rediscover them myself.”

For more information on Brandon O’Brien, go to http://www.brandonobrien.space, find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at therisingtithes, email brandonobrien@windowslive.com and call 496-6344.