AUSTIN - Nobel prize-winning poet and playwright Derek Walcott will give a public reading on Fri., Oct. 26, at 8 p.m. on the campus of St. Edward's University in the Ragsdale Center's Jones Auditorium. This event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Visiting Writers Series sponsored by The School of Humanities.

Walcott, an accomplished painter who often explores the relationship between the visual and verbal arts, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992. He is the author of plays, poetry and three book-length poems, Another Life, the acclaimed Omeros and Tiepolo's Hound, which includes reproductions of Walcott's personal watercolors. Walcott's works frequently celebrate the struggles of people of color in the cultural and racial crossroads of his native Caribbean.

Born in 1930, Walcott teaches at Boston University and resides in both New York City and his native island, St. Lucia, U.S. Virgin Islands.

For more information about the Visiting Writers Series, contact Cynthia Hoff at 416-5809.

Founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, St Edward's University is an independent Catholic liberal arts university of 4,100 students located in Austin, Texas.

# # #