Former educator Berkeley Wendell Semple, 56, a two-time winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature, Poetry category, in 2004 and in 2022, who is now putting together his fifth volume of poems for publication, found inspiration to write during his years of serving the USA in the military during Desert Storm and while stationed at sea.
“Things got a little lonely at sea because we were there for months. In the library on the ship I discovered the poems of St Lucian poet, Derek Walcott, some Guyanese and other Carib-bean writers. Poetry was another life. It intrigued me,” Semple told Stabroek Weekend from his home in Long Island, New York.
Semple, who also writes short stories, said his new book, a historical collection, for which he has finished the first draft, is titled, Imperial Reach.
