Derek Walcott was one of the Caribbean’s best known writers
Nobel laureate poet Derek Walcott has died aged 87 at his home in the Caribbean island of St Lucia after a long illness, local media reports say.
He was regarded by critics as one of the greatest Caribbean poets.
The writer’s collections include In A Green Night: Poems 1948 – 1960 and his epic work, Omeros, which draws on Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2011.
Announcing the news of his death, St Lucia News Online said he had also won many other literary awards throughout his lifetime.
The Poetry Society has described his death as “terrible news”.
Nobel laureate poet Derek Walcott dies aged 87 in St Lucia