Description
In this evocative debut novella-in-verse, Sylvia Fox crafts a hauntingly lyrical exploration of grief, trauma, and the search for self amidst a sea of memory and history. Little Fish plunges readers into the depths of an oceanic liminal space, where Flor, the protagonist, is adrift in her sorrow and contemplation.
Pregnant and grieving the loss of everything she holds dear, Flor encounters the sea goddess Iemanjรก, the ghost of her late mother, and mythic figures from Brazilian folklore such as the trickster Saci Perere and the elusive Boto Cor-De-Rosa. Through a fever dream of loss and introspection, she navigates the treacherous waters of generational trauma and colonial legacies, seeking understanding and a path forward.
This moody and surreal narrative traverses the boundary between the real and the unreal, as Flor confronts the complexities of her family’s past, including her motherโs troubled history and the haunting echoes of colonial and slave histories. Little Fish is a poetic and emotional odyssey through a mystical Atlantic realm, where the waves of memory and grief intertwine to illuminate the profound connections between motherhood, daughterhood, and the fractured self.
Praise for Little Fish
“Little Fishย is a beautiful and sacred experience. The story, the words, the imagesโฆthey rock you from fever dreams to lullabies, from anger and deep wounds to healing through the ancient magic of spirit and nature. It should be savored, taken in slow and more than onceโฆlike you would a prayer. You will do well to fall into Sylvia Foxโs spell โ there is movement and wonder as well as the gift of learning and being blessed by ancestral wisdom. Most importantly, the reader will experience the very special connection to the complex, but global pursuit of women working to heal through generations, past time and trauma, to infinite love and liberation. It is potent, a unique exploration of the bloody, beautiful mysteries of life.”ย – Kellie Richardson, author ofย The Art of Naming My Pain,ย What Us Is,ย and former City of Tacoma Poet Laureate
“Memory and myth work together in tandem in Sylvia Foxโs Little Fish, as fantastical creatures are conjured to explore family history, and ghosts serve as reminders. Fox asks us how are we to make sense of the stories weโve inheritedโwhether we wanted to or not.” – Jonah Barnett, filmmaker and author of Moss-Covered Claws
“A dizzying epic that circles around generational history, Little Fish remembers, forgets, and revives familial narratives through a splendor of mythology, oral histories, and glimpses into the present moment. Among the mesmerizing hums of Brazilian figures are entangling twines of motherhood and left-behind fragments of reincarnated women. Fox expertly brings about magic with every line and footnote, inviting the reader to listen to each ghost while simultaneously pushing them to the margins if they ever attempt to understand the secrets that do not belong to them. Little Fish honors our own bodiesโ history, and how generational cycles are repeated, questioned, and expanded to create a new legacy built upon ancestral knowledge.” – Alissa Tu, author of Confessions of a Modern Day Kumiho
About the Author & Illustrator
Sylvia Fox is a Berlin-based writer interested in folklore, mysticism, migration, histories of colonialism and the African diaspora. She grew up in Texas with family stories told in a mixture of Portuguese and English about border crossings and the passing down of trauma through generations, which she continues to explore in her creative projects. Her writing explores the intersection of oral storytelling and intergenerational immigration narratives and the influence of the transatlantic slave trade along the Brazilian coastline. Sylvia holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. You can find her work at The Acentos Review and Little Patuxent Review.
Sylvia has also worked to support other artists and promote community engagement through the Arts and Culture sector, programming for festivals, professional development, and other event work, in addition to political advocacy. She believes in a future built by uplifting other voices, especially those historically marginalised and underrepresented.
Irene Chin (she/her) is a freelance illustrator, designer, maker currently based in Berlin. She grew up in Hong Kong and graduated from Skidmore College with a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art and an Associates of Applied Science degree in Graphic Design at Parsons School of Design.ย She enjoys exploring the intersection between illustration, design, and storytelling, identified by its colorful, dark, and fantastical nature. She likes to create both digitally and traditionally, and sometimes mix the two! When she’s out of office, you can find her drooling over nice paper, stationery, and pens, casually window shopping for plants, perusing the local bookstores (She’s usually in the fiction, horror, manga, graphic novels section), tuning in at jazz clubs or playing D&D with friends! If all this sounds interesting to you and you would like to work with Irene, feel free to reach out at irenelingchin@gmail.com.
