Sir Derek Alton Walcott OM (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a renowned Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works often reflected a multicultural viewpoint, drawing from the rich symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture.

Walcott is best known for his Homeric epic poem Omeros (1990), widely viewed by critics as his major achievement. Over his illustrious career, he was the recipient of numerous literary awards, including an Obie Award in 1971 for his play Dream on Monkey Mountain, a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award, a Royal Society of Literature Award, the Queen's Medal for Poetry, the inaugural OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the 2010 T. S. Eliot Prize for his poetry book White Egrets, and the Griffin Trust For Excellence in Poetry Lifetime Recognition Award in 2015.

In addition to his literary pursuits, Walcott was a visual artist and founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which produced many of his plays.