2025 Wasafiri Essay Prize awarded to Gavin Herbertson
The 2025 Wasafiri Essay Prize has been awarded to Gavin Herbertsonfor his rigorous and sophisticated essay, 'Interleafing the Philoctetes Figure: Derek Walcott’s Omeros and The Isle is Full of Noises'. Our judging panel lauded the poise and confidence of Herbertson's essay, in particular its fresh, critical contributions to the scholarship on Derek Walcott’s work and the field of Caribbean writing more widely.
Wasafiri’s Deputy Editor, Vamika Sinha, said of the winning essay: ‘Given that there already exists a rich body of scholarship on Derek Walcott and his contributions to the Caribbean literary canon, it is remarkable that Gavin Herbertson’s essay provides such close, careful, and considered analysis as to further deepen and expand the possibilities of critical debate around the Saint Lucian poet and playwright’s work. The essay stood out for its enlivening of postcolonial literary discourse, especially through its execution of “interleafing” as both a formal strategy and analytical framework, amid what was a wide pool of entries to the Prize — reflecting the high quality of work being produced by early-career researchers around the world. Warmest congratulations to Gavin.’
The winning essay will be published in our forthcoming autumn issue, Wasafiri 127, alongside a range of articles, interviews, creative writing, art, and reviews.
The Wasafiri Essay Prize aims to discover, encourage, and award innovative critical essays and articles of an exemplary standard, which constitute the most exciting academic work happening today from anywhere in the world and across international contemporary literature. The Prize is open to PhD candidates and early-career researchers who have received a PhD no more than eight years ago.
About the winner:
Dr Gavin Herbertson is an Assistant Professor of Literature and Cultural Studies at SWPS University, Warsaw, and an Early Career Fellow at the University of London’s Institute of English Studies. His research focuses on modernism, colonial and postcolonial aesthetics, and cross-cultural literary form, with particular attention to Caribbean and global modernist contexts. He completed his DPhil in English Literature at the University of Oxford with a thesis on Derek Walcott’s early writing, and holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, along with a first-class BA from Oxford. His work has recently appeared in New West Indian Guide, Modernist Cultures, Comparative Critical Studies, and The Journal of West Indian Literature.
On winning the 2025 Prize, Herbertson said: ‘I am absolutely delighted and honoured to have been awarded the Wasafiri Essay Prize for my article on Derek Walcott’s recursive engagement with the figure of Philoctetes. The essay represents the culmination of a long, at times obsessive, journey deep into Walcott’s oeuvre that began over a decade ago. It will have been more than worth it if the prize helps draw even a few more readers toward some of the extraordinary, lesser-known parts of his work.’
Herbertson is awarded a £250 cash prize. He will also receive a mentoring conversation with a member of Wasafiri’s editorial board, a print subscription, and publication in the magazine.
Wasafiri is open for academic submissions on a rolling basis; please tick the relevant box to be considered for the Essay Prize.
To read Gavin Herbertson’s winning essay in Wasafiri 127, subscribe to the magazine here.
Check out our Caribbean Writing bundle for further reading across both academic and creative work from the region.