Robert Edison Sandiford is the author of several books, among them The Tree of Youth, winner of Barbados’ Governor General’s Award of Excellence in Literary Arts; And Sometimes They Fly, recipient of a BMA “Brands of Barbados” Award; and Sand for Snow, shortlisted for the Frank Collymore Literary Award. His erotic graphic novels for NBM Publishing (nbmpub.com) have been called “imaginably simple [yet] also imaginatively complex” by the poet George Elliott Clarke. In 2003, he founded with sister writer Linda M. Deane the Barbadian cultural forum ArtsEtc Inc. (artsetcbarbados.com). He has worked as a journalist, publisher, teacher, and, with Warm Water Productions, producer. His essays and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies. Fairfield from DC Books (dcbooks.ca) is his most recent title.
My Dad used to leave us for long hours when we went to the beach, any beach, we could be in the States or another Caribbean island. It was as if he was forever seeking a way Back Home, the sands of Barbados on other shores. We’d be on vacation, in the sea, and his body and head would disappear. Or he’d walk away, his dark back and swim trunks growing smaller and smaller against the skyline. He looked like a superhero, a black Namor for sure, in his red and blue Speedos. Mistrustful of the sunny surface world. More at home in the murkiness of the deep.