PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Derek Walcott Theatre Arts Scholarship says Italian poet, short-story writer, essayist, and translator, Antonella Anedda, has won the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry.
The Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry is given annually to a full-length book of poems by a living poet who is not a US citizen published in the previous calendar year. The book must be in English or English translation and may have been published anywhere in the world Green card holders are eligible.
A statement released by the estate of the 87-year-old St Lucian-born 1992 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, said that Anedda, who was born in Rome to a Sardinian family in 1955, is the author of nine books and the recipient of the prestigious Viareggio Prize for her 2012 collection of poetry, Salva con nome.
Earlier this month, Arrowsmith Press, in partnership with the Derek Walcott Festival in Port of Spain/Walcott Estate, announced that Anedda had been chosen by Diane Mehta as this year’s winner of the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry for her book Historiae, translated from Italian by Susan Stewart and Patrizio Ceccagnoli, published by the New York Review of Books.
The statement said that the prize was established from a generous donation by Walcott in 2014. She will receive a US$2,000 cash prize to be shared by the poet and the translators.
Established in 2019, the annual prize is for a book in English or English translation by a living poet writing in any language who is not a US citizen published in the previous calendar year.
Submissions for the 2025 Walcott Prize are now open, the statement said.
It said also that Zion McNeil has been awarded the Derek Walcott Theatre Arts Scholarship (2023/2024) which is presented annually to a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) student enrolled in the theatre arts programme at the University of the West Indies (UWI).