Lorna Goodison brings Dante into Jamaica’s living language
Dante’s Inferno wins the 2026 Derek Walcott Prize as the poet reshapes Dante’s journey through patois and Caribbean memory.
Lorna Goodison has won the 2026 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry with Dante’s Inferno, a reimagining that brings Dante’s poem into the language and imagination of Jamaica. Judge Rosanna Warren praised Goodison’s renewal of the Inferno through patois, verbal play and a poetic guide inspired by Louise Bennett-Coverley, known as Miss Lou. Presented by Arrowsmith Press with the Derek Walcott Festival and the Saint Lucian Nobel laureate’s estate, the award recognises a poetry book by a non-US writer. Goodison will receive $2,000. The prize therefore shows how a classic can change voice without losing its force, entering a Caribbean tradition that turns translation, rewriting and cultural memory into a single poetic act.