Nobel Prize Winner Derek Walcott Reads Sea Grapes

Sir Derek Alton Walcott (January 1930- March 2017) was an award-winning poet from Saint Lucia; born to parents who adored poetry and art, Derek and his twin brother Roderick (a playwright) seemed destined to be creative and expressive themselves.

Sadly Derek passed away in March 2017, but he has left an extensive legacy of poetry that gained much recognition through the decades. He wrote his first poem at 14 and, with help from his mother, he self-published his works, and eventually gained a scholarship to the University College of the West Indies.

Derek Walcott remarked how his writing was influenced by T.S Eliot and Ezra Pound, and his friends and contemporaries Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Walcott’s writing was heavily influenced by tensions and cultural themes from his post-colonial Caribbean upbringing, and these meaningful reflections brought him critical acclaim.

Award Winning Poet Derek Walcott’s Achievements:

1969 Cholmondeley Award

1971 Obie Award for Best Foreign Play (for Dream on Monkey Mountain)

1972 Officer of the Order of the British Empire

1981 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“genius award”)

1988 Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry

1990 Arts Council of Wales International Writers Prize

1990 W. H. Smith Literary Award (for poetry Omeros)

1992 Nobel Prize in Literature

2004 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement

2008 Honorary doctorate from the University of Essex

2011 T. S. Eliot Prize (for poetry collection White Egrets)

2011 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (for White Egrets)

2015 Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry Lifetime Recognition Award

2016 Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Lucia

Find your copy of Derek Walcott’s poetry here:

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