Celeste Rita Baker: sunrise to sundown with an everlasting rainbow sprinkled with orange

 

Celeste Rita Baker

7/28/1958-10/30/2025

sunrise to sundown with an everlasting rainbow sprinkled with orange

by Cesi Davidson

 

 

FOR THE RECORD

Celeste Rita Baker was a Virgin Islander living in Charlotte, North Carolina. Baker's genres include fantasy, speculative fiction, and magical realism in which she writes in Caribbean dialect and standard English. Her first short story, The Dreamprice” a humorous piece and dialect about gossip and favors was published by the Caribbean writer. It gave her the courage to continue submitting her short stories for publication. She won the world fantasy short story award in 2021 for “Glass Bottle Dancer” a lighthearted story about finding that thing that puts a smile on your face. It was published in dialect by Lightspeed and landed her on the front page of the Virgin Islands Daily News. It was translated into Mandarin by the Chinese publisher, Science Fiction World. “Single Entry,” about Earth participating in a Carnival parade and Rock Feather Shell, about a little boy who was turned into a turtle, were very proud accomplishments given their publication in the Virgin Islands’ Moko Magazine. Celeste would say, “It was always nice to be recognized by your own.”

The short story “Dip and Roll” about seaside rocks experiencing an earthquake was narrated with eight different voices by voice actor, Derrick O’Neal for the publishers, Podcastle. Two versions of her story “Name Calling” were published by Abyss & Apex, one in full dialect, and one edited for “easy reading.” The story raised controversy in the science fiction community centered around authenticity versus clarity. Celeste called it watering down. She likened it to putting ice in her rum. Tobias Bucknell and Amal El-Mohar publicly came to her defense, further enhancing her determination not to limit herself to standard American English. She was proud to write as the story dictated. One of her most absurd satiric stories was written in standard English American English, “Pedestals, Proclivities and Perpetuities” and published in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Her work has been published by African Voices, NYU’s Calabash, Strange Horizons, Khoreo, Instant Noodles, Tree and Stone and Margins Magical Realism. Her work has also been included in the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021, People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy, An Alphabet of Book of World Sci-fi 4. She was a graduate of Clarion West Science Fiction Writers Workshop and a proud member of Harlem Writers United. Back, Belly and Side, her book of short stories, is published by Aqueduct Press.

 

IN HER OWN WORDS

Inspirations

The first time I saw myself--A Black Caribbean Woman--in print was in Merle Collin’s novel Angel. I stood in the store holding the book to me chest, panting, tearing burning eyes me eyes. I was.

 I'm grateful for and loved the work of Octavia Butler. Ms. Butler brought me to a world of science where I was.

 

The Virgin Islands

My family is from the Virgin Islands, Saint Thomas and Saint John. I was born in New York City but “came to know meself” on Saint Thomas, learned to talk there and enjoyed my childhood. I returned to New York when I was twelve years old and that affected me and that I realized that I used to be and now I wasn't.

 

Harlem NYC

I moved back and forth from Saint Thomas to the States numerous times but lived in Harlem for almost 30 years. I loved it. I couldn't keep up with all the things to see, do, and learn. I especially learned that whatever you're into, you can find other people doing it too, and doing it in that trend-setting way that Harlem is known for. I found the incredible Sheree Renee Thomas, my writing teacher and mentor at Fred Hudson's Frederick Douglass Creative Art Center in Harlem.

 

FROM MY HEART

Everyone should be so fortunate to have at least one forever friend in their lifetime. Someone to walk down the street with as you talk and chat and chat and talk about everything and nothing. When Celeste and I did our walk talk chats across 125^th Street in Harlem she wore her favorite color orange. I wore my favorite color of the day. We took a breath and those steps. Me self you self is good.