The West Indies have produced a number of writers of world stature. Name CLR James, Derek Walcott, Wilson Harris, VS Naipaul, Roy Heath, Martin Carter, Kamau Brathwaite, and Earl Lovelace and you name eight of them. Among these, Derek Walcott stands out as the greatest poet now writing in the English language. As he has grown older his work is as beautiful and compelling as it ever was. His name honoured the Nobel Prize as much as the prize honoured him.
He was born and spent his youth in St Lucia. He studied at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. For years he wrote and produced and directed plays in Trinidad. Despite all his subsequent travelling