Often focusing on West Indian folk traditions, Walcott's plays include Dream on Monkey Mountain (1970), The Joker of Seville (1975), Remembrance: Pantomime (1980), A Branch of the Blue Nile (1986), The Odyssey (1992), and The Capeman (1997), a musical (and Broadway flop) written with Paul Simon. Walcott's verse collections include the breakthrough In a Green Night (1962), which first brought him to international attention, and the autobiographical Another Life (1973) as well as Sea Grapes (1976), Midsummer (1984), and The Bounty (1997). His epic poem Omeros (1990) echoes and reimagines Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as it examines the Caribbean's colonial past and complex present. Tiepolo's Hound (2001), in which he interweaves his own story with that of the St. Thomas-born painter Camille Pissarro, and The Prodigal (2004), the poet's memoir of journey and return and a meditation on fame and death, are also book-length narrative poems. Walcott is also a skilled realist painter, whose cover art and illustrations have sometimes accompanied his poetry. He lives in St. Lucia and the United States, where he has taught at several universities. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
See his Selected Poems (ed. by E. Baugh, 2007); biography by B. A. King (2000); W. Baer, Conversations with Derek Walcott (1996); studies by N. Thomas (1980), R. Terada (1992), R. D. Hamner (1981, rev. ed. 1993; as ed., 1993), B. A. King (1995), and J. L. Espejo and J. M. P. Fernández, ed. (2001).
(born Jan. 23, 1930, Castries, Saint Lucia) West Indian poet and playwright. Walcott was educated in Saint Lucia and Jamaica, and after 1958 he lived in Trinidad and the U.S. Many of his works explore the Caribbean cultural experience. He is best known for his poetry; in volumes such as In a Green Night (1962), The Gulf (1969), Another Life (1973), The Star-Apple Kingdom (1979), The Fortunate Traveller (1981), and The Bounty (1997), Walcott's erudition is submerged in sweeping rhythmic and sensuous sonorities. His epic poem Omeros (1990) is a retelling of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in a 20th-century Caribbean setting. Tiepolo's Hound (2000) is a poetic biography of West Indian-born French painter Camille Pissarro. Of Walcott's approximately 30 plays, the best-known are Ti-Jean and His Brothers (1958), Dream on Monkey Mountain (produced 1967), and Pantomime (1978). In 1992 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Learn more about Walcott, Derek (Alton) with a free trial on Britannica.com.
(born Jan. 23, 1930, Castries, Saint Lucia) West Indian poet and playwright. Walcott was educated in Saint Lucia and Jamaica, and after 1958 he lived in Trinidad and the U.S. Many of his works explore the Caribbean cultural experience. He is best known for his poetry; in volumes such as In a Green Night (1962), The Gulf (1969), Another Life (1973), The Star-Apple Kingdom (1979), The Fortunate Traveller (1981), and The Bounty (1997), Walcott's erudition is submerged in sweeping rhythmic and sensuous sonorities. His epic poem Omeros (1990) is a retelling of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in a 20th-century Caribbean setting. Tiepolo's Hound (2000) is a poetic biography of West Indian-born French painter Camille Pissarro. Of Walcott's approximately 30 plays, the best-known are Ti-Jean and His Brothers (1958), Dream on Monkey Mountain (produced 1967), and Pantomime (1978). In 1992 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Learn more about Walcott, Derek (Alton) with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Derek may refer to: