Statue of Historic Figure: Derek Alton Walcott - Castries, St. Lucia

Derek Alton Walcott

Castries, St. Lucia

N 14° 00.532 W 060° 59.431

Short Description: 

A monument honoring the 1992 Nobel Prize recipient in literature, Derek Alton Walcott, is located in Derek Walcott Park in Castries, St. Lucia.

Long Description:

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 and playwright 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.

In the park is a life-size bronze bust of Derek Walcott set on a 5' high teal colored stone base. On the front of the base is a marble plaque which is inscribed:

HON. DEREK ALTON WALCOTT

BORN IN ST LUCIA JANUARY 23, 1930

NOBEL PRIZE

FOR LITERATURE 1992

"Moi c'est gens Ste. Lucia C'est la

moi sotti: is there that I born"

Excerpt from the poem

"Sainte Lucie"

Derek Alton Walcott, is a poet and playwright and former 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. List of works from Wikipedia:

Poetry collections

1948 25 Poems
1949 Epitaph for the Young: Xll Cantos
1951 Poems
1962 In a Green Night: Poems 1948—60
1964 Selected Poems
1965 The Castaway and Other Poems
1969 The Gulf and Other Poems
1973 Another Life
1976 Sea Grapes
1979 The Star-Apple Kingdom
1981 Selected Poetry
1981 The Fortunate Traveller
1983 The Caribbean Poetry of Derek Walcott and the Art of Romare Bearden
1984 Midsummer
1986 Collected Poems, 1948–1984, featuring "Love After Love"
1987 Central America
1987 The Arkansas Testament
1990 Omeros
1997 The Bounty
2000 Tiepolo's Hound, includes Walcott's watercolors
2004 The Prodigal
2007 Selected Poems (edited, selected, and with an introduction by Edward Baugh)
2010 White Egrets
2014 The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948–2013

Plays

(1950) Henri Christophe: A Chronicle in Seven Scenes
(1951) Harry Dernier: A Play for Radio Production
(1953) Wine of the Country
(1954) The Sea at Dauphin: A Play in One Act
(1957) Ione
(1958) Drums and Colours: An Epic Drama
(1958) Ti-Jean and His Brothers
(1966) Malcochon: or, Six in the Rain
(1967) Dream on Monkey Mountain
(1970) In a Fine Castle
(1974) The Joker of Seville
(1974) The Charlatan
(1976) O Babylon!
(1977) Remembrance
(1978) Pantomime
(1980) The Joker of Seville and O Babylon!: Two Plays
(1982) The Isle Is Full of Noises
(1984) The Haitian Earth
(1986) Three Plays: The Last Carnival, Beef, No Chicken, and A Branch of the Blue Nile
(1991) Steel
(1993) Odyssey: A Stage Version
(1997) The Capeman (book and lyrics, both in collaboration with Paul Simon)
(2002) Walker and The Ghost Dance
(2011) Moon-Child
(2014) O Starry Starry Night

Other books

(1990) The Poet in the Theatre, Poetry Book Society (London)
(1993) The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory Farrar, Straus (New York)
(1996) Conversations with Derek Walcott, University of Mississippi (Jackson, MS)
(1996) (With Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney) Homage to Robert Frost, Farrar, Straus (New York)
(1998) What the Twilight Says (essays), Farrar, Straus (New York, NY)
(2002) Walker and Ghost Dance, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY)
(2004) Another Life: Fully Annotated, Lynne Rienner Publishers (Boulder, CO)
(2016) Morning, Paramin Derek Walcott; illustrated by Peter Doig, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY)