Edward Baugh has one of the most recognisable voices in Caribbean poetry: his dry wit, poise and elegance, his constant capacity to surprise with the range of his concerns. Black Sand comprises poems selected from Baugh’s two previous collections, A Tale from the Rain Forest (1988) and It was the Singing (2000), plus a collection’s worth of new poems.
His subject matter ranges wide: race, history, sport, love, the academic life, the consolations of natural beauty. He also casts a shrewd eye over a Jamaica characterised by urbane polish, gated communities, religious enthusiasm, and a black majority still struggling against the wrongs of the past.
“Edward Baugh has been able... to avoid imitation and stay tellingly brief in the midst of such epic scale... He does not disappoint.”
The Poetry Archive
Edward Baugh was born in Jamaica in 1936. Growing up in Port Antonio, he witnessed the unusual sight of his small hometown being taken over by the Hollywood actor Errol Flynn, whose private yacht was anchored in the bay. A Commonwealth Scholarship later took him to Manchester University, where he gained his PhD. He edited Derek Walcott’s Selected Poems (2007); a monograph, Derek Walcott, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2007, and reissued in 2012. Edward taught at the University of the West Indies for over thirty years, and has held various visiting posts in the UK and the US.