Derek Walcott (1930-2017) was a Caribbean poet, playwright and theatre director, and Professor of English at Boston University (1985-2007). Born on the island of Saint Lucia, Derek Walcott was trained as a painter but turned to writing at a young age. Walcott’s major breakthrough came with the collection In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960 (1962), a book which celebrates the Caribbean and its history, as well as investigates the scars of colonialism. This book is typical of his early poetry in its celebration of the Caribbean landscape’s natural beauty. He is best known for his epic poem Omeros (1990), a retelling of the dramas of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in a 20th-century Caribbean setting. Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He was also a renowned playwright who wrote several plays (approximately 30) produced throughout the United States.