West Indian poet, scholar Edward Baugh to read poetry, discuss Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott Feb. 17

West Indian poet, scholar Edward Baugh to read poetry, discuss Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott Feb. 17February 15, 2006Carol K. Masiclatclkim@syr.edu

The Creative Writing Program in the Department of English, in collaboration with the Department of African American Studies and the Latino-Latin American Studies Program of Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, will present “A Reading & Conversation with Edward Baugh,” Friday, Feb. 17, from 3-4:30 in Room 219 of Sims Hall.

Baugh, a distinguished West Indian poet and scholar, is emeritus professor of English at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. An authority on Anglophone Caribbean literature, he will read from his latest poetry and discuss his recent writings on the works of his friend, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott.

“Edward Baugh combines the merits of a first-rate poet in his own right, a fine literary scholar who is responsible for organizing a great deal of the knowledge of West Indian poetry available to readers today, and a specialist with the most privileged access to information about the works of Derek Walcott, the Nobel-Prize winner who is also a close friend of his,” says Silvio Torres-Saillant, associate professor of English and director of the Latino-Latin American Studies Program. “We feel privileged to have the opportunity to bring our students and colleagues into contact with Baugh’s poetry and scholarly insights.”

Baugh’s publications include “West Indian Poetry 1900-1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation” (Savacou, 1971), “Critics on Caribbean Literature” (Allen & Unwin 1978), “Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision” (Longman, 1978), “A Tale From the Rainforest” (Sandberry Press, 1988) and “It Was the Singing” (Sandberry Press, 2000). His most recent work is an annotated scholarly edition of Derek Walcott’s “Another Life” (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004) with ColbertNepaulsingh. He is currently working on a biography of Frank Collymore and a monograph on Derek Walcott for the Cambridge University Press series on African and Caribbean writers.

This event is free and open to the public. Paid parking is available in the Comstock lot on Comstock Avenue.

For more information, contact Torres-Saillant at 443-9475 or Chris Kennedy, director of the Creative Writing Program, at 443-3755.