Christine Barrow

Christine Barrow lived in Barbados for nearly fifty years, retiring as Professor Emerita from the University of the West Indies. Her short story collection, Black Dogs and the Colour Yellow, was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2018. Her work has been published in Bim: Arts for the 21st Century, POUi: The Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing, The Caribbean Writer and Callaloo. In 2023, her novella, The Rainbow Window, was awarded top prize in the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment competition. The anthology Unstitching Silence edited by Shivanee Ramlochan and Lucy Evans (Peekash Press, 2025) includes her short story “The Mermaid’s Tail”.

An Excerpt from The Rainbow Window

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The island of St Augustine is shaped like a gigantic prehistoric fish, tail fin stretching and thrashing against the tempestuous waves of the Atlantic, head resting in the calm waters of the Caribbean Sea. On the hill at the cliff edge, where the eye of the fish protrudes, stands an ancient coral-stone edifice.

Left Behind

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His name is not there. Jalecia huffs on her frozen fingers as she reads the eight names beside buzzers, from top down again, and from bottom back up – as if that would make his appear.

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