Fishing Fly
From the worm to the mouth
From the worm to the mouth
Pellestrina. Photo: Maria Montero Sierra
Mercado Maravillas. Photo: Maria Montero Sierra/
Venice Lagoon. Photo: Maria Montero Sierra
TBA21–Academy
Publications
Conceived by María Montero Sierra, Fishing Fly began at the end of a simple hook. Inspired by the work of Hreinn Fridfinnsson, it sought to unearth the cultural and aesthetic intricacies behind a seemingly anodyne object: a fishing fly. It has since developed into an evolving research project — encompassing a reading group and publication — that has sought to investigate the covert systems through which fish are processed and consumed.
How do we get our hands back into the water? How do we break down the sensorial alienation codified within these systems? These questions have been at the forefront of the group’s work over the past six months and have informed the direction of their inquiry.
Fishing Fly is a serial publication of short fiction that animates vernacular and futuristic conceptions of marine life and human relationships. In the midst of shuffling the widespread disconnection with the ocean, the gathered fiction stories reconcile care, respect, and consciousness of possible more-than-human relationships. The state of the ocean and the marine life are also a reflection of human behavior that has often tended to extractivist, abusive, profitable, speediness, and selfish approaches discarding precious situated knowledge including fishing and cooking craft and the powerful rituals of storytelling. This series of short fiction infuses into the actions transmitted through generations to connect us with the salty waters and its many lives.
This series is edited by María Montero Sierra and published by TBA21–Academy that has also generously supported the eponymous ongoing research group, focusing on marine and human relationships through the prism of eating.
How do we get our hands back into the water? How do we break down the sensorial alienation codified within these systems? These questions have been at the forefront of the group’s work over the past six months and have informed the direction of their inquiry.
Fishing Fly is a serial publication of short fiction that animates vernacular and futuristic conceptions of marine life and human relationships. In the midst of shuffling the widespread disconnection with the ocean, the gathered fiction stories reconcile care, respect, and consciousness of possible more-than-human relationships. The state of the ocean and the marine life are also a reflection of human behavior that has often tended to extractivist, abusive, profitable, speediness, and selfish approaches discarding precious situated knowledge including fishing and cooking craft and the powerful rituals of storytelling. This series of short fiction infuses into the actions transmitted through generations to connect us with the salty waters and its many lives.
This series is edited by María Montero Sierra and published by TBA21–Academy that has also generously supported the eponymous ongoing research group, focusing on marine and human relationships through the prism of eating.
TEXTS
Fishing Fly #1: "Red Water" by Amanda Choo Quan (July 23, 2021)
Amanda Choo Quan is a Trinidadian/Jamaican writer and poet. She is the winner of the 2020 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize for Non-Fiction. A graduate of CalArts’ MFA in Creative Writing, she’s been a Truman Capote, Callaloo, Juniper, and Cropper Foundation fellow.
Fishing Fly #1: "Red Water" by Amanda Choo Quan (July 23, 2021)
Amanda Choo Quan is a Trinidadian/Jamaican writer and poet. She is the winner of the 2020 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize for Non-Fiction. A graduate of CalArts’ MFA in Creative Writing, she’s been a Truman Capote, Callaloo, Juniper, and Cropper Foundation fellow.
Fishing Fly #2: "Three Tries" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD (August 13, 2021)
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD is a queer Black feminist love evangelist, a community cherished writer and scholar and an aspirational cousin to all beings. The Anguilla Literary Festival has referred to Alexis as “the pride of Anguilla.” Alexis is the oldest granddaughter of Jeremiah and Lydia Gumbs, two leaders of the Anguillian revolution. Alexis is the author of several books, most recently Dub: Finding Ceremony and Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. Alexis is literary advisor to the Ntozake Shange Trust and Creative Writing Editor for Feminist Studies. Alexis lives on land traditionally stewarded by the Occoneechee Band of the Saponi Nation and is co-founder of Mobile Homecoming Trust, a living library amplifying generations of Black LGBTQ brilliance.
Fishing Fly #3: "The Fisherman" by Veronica Stigger (February 21, 2022)
Veronica Stigger (Porto Alegre, 1973) lives and works in São Paulo. She is a writer, art critic, independent curator, and university professor. Stigger is the author of 12 books of fiction. Among them, there are Opisanie świata (2013), Sul (2016) and Sombrio ermo turvo (2019). With some of her books, she received the most important literary prizes in Brazil. Opisanie świata, Massamorda, and Sul have been translated into Spanish; and several of her stories have been translated into Catalan, Spanish, French, Swedish, English, Italian, German, and Indonesian.
Fishing Fly #4: "The Flying Eyes" by Karin Amimoto Ingersoll (March 13, 2023)
Karin Amimoto Ingersoll, PhD is a Kanaka academic and fiction writer from Hawai‘i. She is the recipient of the Hawai‘i-Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship and has published several articles and works of fiction, including “An Oceanic Nation,” in Indigenous Encounters: Exploring Relations Between People in the Pacific, Waves of Knowing: A Seascape Epistemology, and “Sea Ontologies.”