
Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, Caribbean poet, dies at 87
CASTRIES, Saint Lucia — Derek Walcott, a Nobel prize-winning poet known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean, died Friday on the island of St. Lucia. He was 87.
“Derek Alton Walcott, poet, playwright, and painter died peacefully today, Friday 17th March, 2017, at his home in Cap Estate, Saint Lucia,” said a family statement. It said the funeral would be held in St. Lucia and details would be announced shortly.
The prolific and versatile poet received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1992. The academy cited the “great luminosity” of his writings including the 1990 “Omeros,” a 64-chapter Caribbean epic that it praised as “majestic.”
“In him, West Indian culture has found its great poet,” the Swedish academy said in awarding the $1.2 million prize to Walcott.