Derek Walcott (2002)

Derek Walcott was born in Saint Lucia and began his career writing plays. Creolizing practices and pan-Carribbeanism have remained focal ideas in all his work. Many critics review Walcott because of his multicultural background. Having parents with Black and white heritage as well as growing up in Catholic and Protestant institutions, readers expect his work to reflect these differences and similarities with personal sensitivity. Although he is as much a playwright as a visual artist, Walcott is celebrated in America primarily for his poetry. He was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for Literature in 1992 after his publication of an epic poem called Omeros, a new conceptualization of Homer’s epic poems.