As one of Jamaica’s most acclaimed poets, Ishion Hutchinson’s verses are recognised as some of the most important modern poetic works. His style has been described as “fastidious”, “energetic”, and “warm.” He is the author of two poetry collections: Far District (2010) and House of Lords and Commons (2016).
School of Instructions (2023), his latest work, is a “visionary work of memory, elegy, and loss” capturing the experiences of West Indian soldiers who fought for the British in the First World War. The Guardian calls School of Instructions—which was shortlisted for the 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize—a window into “the terrors of war and imperialism, using dizzyingly original language and brutally impactful rhythms to create a tapestry of suffering, courage and struggle.”
Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Ishion is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.
He is a contributing editor to the literary journals The Common and Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art and teaches in the graduate writing program at Cornell University, where he is the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor in the Humanities.
More from and about Ishion Hutchinson: “The Mariner’s Progress”, “Wheel Of Fire”, “The Anabasis Of Godspeed”, “At Night Birds Hammered My Unborn”, “Black Space”, “A Furnace In My Father’s Voice; I Prayed For The Coal Stove’s”, “Homage: Vallejo”, and “A March” (Poetry Foundation) • “Little Music” by Ishion Hutchinson (Harper’s) • “Daily Walk To Friendship” by Ishion Hutchinson (The New Yorker) • “I Can Hear A Poem Before It Arrives” (The Guardian) • “Jamaica’s Best New Poet Weighs In” (The New York Times) • Ishion Hutchinson, Post-Colonial Poet (The New Yorker) • Poet Ishion Hutchinson reads ‘The Mud Sermon’ and Other Poems (Berkeley Talks) • “Storefront Poems: Poet Ishion Hutchinson Reads From School Of Instructions” (Poetry Society Of America) • Ishion Hutchinson On His Work (T. S. Eliot Prize) • “Reading By Ishion Hutchinson” (Cornell English Department) • “After The Hurricane: Ishion Hutchinson Reading & Discussion” (Library Of America) • “Wild Butchery Of Souls” (Commonweal Magazine)
Author image: ishionhutchinson.com
