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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS