Derek Walcott (1930–), poet, educator, playwright, journalist, and painter, was the first African-Caribbean to be honored with the Nobel Prize in literature, in 1992. The prize was given for his “melodious and sensitive” style and “historic vision.” His writings reflect the cultural diversity of his native Caribbean homeland, St. Lucia. A teacher at Boston University, Walcott also won a $250,000 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant eleven years earlier. He is regarded as one of the finest living poets in England. Born of mixed racial and heritage background in Castries, St. Lucia, Walcott was educated as a British subject. He was founding director of Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959.