A Man ahead of his Time
This website is dedicated to a man that loved his family and was faithful to his friends. He was a son, brother, husband, father, teacher, national chess player, friend, and short story writer. In his short but fruitful life, he caught the history of Barbados on paper in short story form. A Barbados that was young and on the rise, that later became known in song as the “Gem of the Caribbean sea” – Listen to “Beautiful Barbados” at end of this page.
Coming from a poor background, he was full of creativity and imagination. His stories demonstrate his mastery of the English Language. A protégé of Frank Collymore, he rose from the shadows of this giant to become a giant himself.
Karl Sealy (1922-1993) was a short story writer from Barbados and Edward Baugh called him, “one of the finest, most compelling West Indian writers of prose fiction”. Listen to Dr. Zoanne Evans of the Barbados UWI as she gives her insights into the stories of The Best of Karl Sealy (1st video).
Karl was an academic and his stories went on to be recognized by Oxford, Cambridge, RCA (OCR collection), and a number of other institutions in the UK, West Indies, and the USA. The Best of Karl Sealy (Vol. 1) has sixteen of the finest stories. Should you want to improve your writing skills, Karl’s work makes for a good addition to your study library.
Stories with International Reach
The following three stories are extracts from the Best of Karl Sealy.
The Pieces of silver (click/tap)
The Pieces of Silver is the most well-known story of all Karl’s works. Featured in “Opening Worlds” - The OCR Collection - UK; it shows his greatness as a story teller. We invite you to have an introductory read..
My Fathers before Me
My Fathers before Me is another well-known story that was featured in “An Anthology of Colonial and Postcolonial Short Fiction” – Dean Baldwin & Patrick J. Quinn - USA. We invite you to have an introductory read..
The Fields are High
The Fields are High is one of Karl’s works that captures a rural Barbados that is almost long forgotten. One of his many stories featured in Bim (magazine) - West Indies. We invite you to have an introductory read..
It was about Family
My early memory of Dad was hearing the typewriter (a manual word processor with no spell check) late at night pounding away, click, click, click. I had no idea what that was all about. Growing up, my time was spent playing outside with my imagination as an only child and looking forward to Mom’s mealtime (my brother came later). There were no “devices” in those days to text and play games. Games were invented in your mind, and you made up your own world; you better believe it was just as much fun. I did not think for one moment that Dad was making a living for the family by creating stories that would outlast him and eventually all of us. Dad has left a fictional and historical mark about an island in its cultural infancy for generations to enjoy.
His stories offer a peek into a time when Barbadians were Bajans (in a manner of speaking). You will get a sense of the love and togetherness of Caribbean people that were descendants of slaves. It was about all of us being industrious and forging forward to build a nation that today has become one of the leading islands in the Caribbean. “The Best of Karl Sealy” is a window to what was and it is in knowing where we came from that we are better able to understand where we are today.
Trevor Sealy (Bajan Eagle) – son
An afternoon of Cricket
In Dad’s time being part of an inspiring day of cricket was the norm for most Bajans. In this photo, we have Rashid Depeiza in a game of cricket at Harrison College’s grounds.