West Indian dramatist and poet Derek Walcott, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature, is expected to appear at a colloquium to be held in Tainan City tomorrow, the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature reported yesterday.
Walcott, who was born in Castries, St. Lucia in 1930 to a British father and a West Indian mother, will attend the colloquium titled: "Poetry, Language and Identity," to be sponsored by the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature with various local poets, academics and literati also taking part.
It is hoped that Walcott, who skillfully fuses folk island culture with the classical and avant-garde in his poems, will be inspirational to Taiwan's literary circles at a time when Taiwan is enthusiastically promoting maritime culture, a museum spokesman said.
Walcott also visited Taiwan in 2002, when he was the focus of a week of readings, discussions and lectures.
Walcott, who from the age of eight envisaged becoming a poet, published his first poem at 14 and had his first verse collection printed by the time he was 18.
Walcott, who divides his time between the US and Trinidad, exalts in the English language with his meticulously honed poems and evocative dramas, while also using a rich mix of Latin, French and Trinidadian patois.
In addition to poems and verse, Walcott also writes plays and epic poems. His 1990 epic poem Omeros, which echoes Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as it examines the Caribbean's colonial past and complex present, won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
Often focusing on West Indian folk traditions, Walcott's plays include Dream on Monkey Mountain (1970), The Joker of Seville (1975), A Branch of the Blue Nile (1986), while his verse collections include In a Green Night (1962), the autobiographical Another Life (1973), Sea Grapes (1976) and Midsummer (1984).
Professor Xi Mi from the University of California in Los Angeles will be the host of the colloquium, while Taiwan poets Lee Kuei-hsien and Lee Min-yung, and professor Tseng Chen-chen of National Dong Hwa University and Lin Jui-ming, director of the National Museum of Taiwanese Literature, will join Walcott for the discussion, according to the museum spokesman.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
RSS