Poet, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott dies at 87 in St. Lucia

Derek Walcott, a Nobel-prize winning poet known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean and who became the region’s most internationally famous writer, has died on the island of St. Lucia. He was 87.

Walcott died early Friday at his home in the eastern Caribbean nation, according to his son, Peter.

“Derek Alton Walcott, poet, playwright, and painter, died peacefully today, Friday 17th March, 2017, at his home in Cap Estate, Saint Lucia,” read a statement the family released later in the morning.

The prolific and versatile poet received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1992 after being shortlisted for the honor for many years. In selecting Walcott, the academy cited the great luminosity” of his writings, including the 1990 “Omeros,” a 64-chapter Caribbean epic it praised as “majestic.”

Walcott, who was of African, Dutch and English ancestry, said his writing reflected the “very rich and complicated experience” of life in the Caribbean. His dazzling, painterly work earned him a reputation as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the 20th century.

Walcott was born in St. Lucia’s capital of Castries on Jan. 23, 1930, to a Methodist schoolteacher mother and a civil servant father. His mother, Alix, instilled the love of language in her children, often reciting Shakespeare and reading aloud other classics of English literature. At age 14, he published his first work, a 44-line poem called “1944,” in a local newspaper.

For much of his life, Walcott, who taught at Boston University for many years, divided his time between the United States and the Caribbean. Walcott also penned some 40 plays, including “Dream on Monkey Mountain” and “The Last Carnival.”

JEFFREY ARGUEDAS/EPA 2012 Derek Walcott, the 1992 Nobel Prize winner in literature, captured the essence of his native Caribbean.