LITERATURE - Derek Walcott - Castries, St. Lucia
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neoc1
N 14° 00.551 W 060° 59.448
20P E 717005 N 1549663
Derek Walcott Square in the center of Castries, St. Lucia is named for St. Lucia's 1992 Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
Waymark Code: WMHWC1
Location: Saint Lucia
Date Posted: 08/19/2013
Views: 21
The tiny Caribbean island of St. Lucia, population 174,000, can boast of producing two Nobel Prize recipients. Sir Arthur Lewis received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979, and the poet Derek Walcott received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
The park in the center Castries, the capital of St. Lucia, has been renamed from Columbus Park to Derek Walcott Square in honor of their latest Nobel Prize recipient.
Derek Alton Walcott, is a poet and playwright and currently a Professor of poetry at the University of Essex. His most notable work was the Homeric epic poem, Omeros which he published in 1990. Walcott has won many additional literary awards including an Obie Award in 1971 for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain, the Queen's Medal for Poetry, Royal Society of Literature Award, and, in 2011, the T. S. Eliot Prize for his book of poetry, White Egrets. Walcott is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "genius" award.
A sign in Derek Walcott Square has his picture and recognizes his achievement as a Nobel Prize recipient. Likewise. there is a bust of Derek Walcott in the middle of the Square.
The sign reads:
DEREK WALCOTT
SQUARE
This square was renamed "Derek Walcott
Square" on 23rd January 1993 to
commemorate the award of Nobel Prize
for Literature to Mr. Walcott in 1992.
Derek Walcot, poet, painter and
playwright was born in St. Lucia on
23rd January 1930. He was educated at
the St. Mary's College, Castries and at
the University of the West Indies.
Below the bust of Derek Walcott there is a plaque with the inscription:
HON. DEREK ALTON WALCOTT
BORN IN ST LUCIA JANUARY 23, 1930
NOBEL PRIZE
FOR LITERATURE 1992