Alexander Hutchison (1943-2015)

Alexander Hutchison is a poet and translator who writes in English and Scots. He was born and brought up in Buckie, a fishing town on the north-east coast of Scotland and currently lives on the south side of Glasgow. Hutchison has worked mostly in universities, including in Canada and the USA, though he gave up being a literary academic some time ago. He has always been interested in the relation between poetry and the other arts, and the possibilities for collaboration. His poem ‘Mr Scales Walks His Dog’, an underground perennial, was composed in the early seventies and drew praise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael Ondaatje. It was included in Hutchison’s first collection, Deep-Tap Tree (University of Massachusetts Press, 1978), which is still in print, and the piece reappeared in Scales Dog: New and Selected Poems (Salt, 2007). The American poet Robert Creeley said: ‘Sandy Hutchison’s poems read brightly, with fine economy and precision. There is humor and warmth, an ear for clear edges of sound, and a pace that can hold all together.’ In 2010 the Italian magazine In Forma di Parole will dedicate an issue to Hutchison’s poetry, translated by Alessandro Valenzisi, and also featuring some of the poet’s versions of Catullus and Pier Paolo Pasolini in English and Scots. Alongside poetry he has been trying to sing a bit more. Bones and Breath was published in 2013.