Above: Derek Walcott

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A new book examines the work of St Lucia native Derek Walcott, from his earliest poetry to his most recent collections.

“Interlocking Basins of a Globe — Essays on Derek Walcott,” published by Peepal Tree Press, begins with a discussion from Walcott’s poems from 1948 and concludes with his works like “The Prodigal” from 2004 and White Egrets (2010).

“I like very much that this was a book with a very real Caribbean center of gravity,” said Jeremy Poynting, founder of Peepal Tree Press. “It’s a book which brings Derek Walcott back home and that I really like about it.”

Most, but not all, of the contributors are based in the Caribbean. The work was edited by Trinidad native Dr Jean Antoine Dunne, a senior lecturer in English Literature at the University of the West Indies.

Walcott himself supplied the cover art for the book, which came from one of his paintings.

Walcott, who currently teaches at the University of Essex, won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature “for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”

For more information on the book, click here.