‘His main subjects – seas, winds, tides, shorelines and horizons – are expressed in precisely observed details of shape, colour, texture and movement that capture the spirit of a place as well as the topography in poem after poem, until voyaging becomes fact and metaphor in Stephen’s work, a way of life and a way of interpreting life.’ –James Aitchieson Ian Stephen has continued to publish and perform poetry internationally while exploring other forms such as drama, fiction, non-fiction and many cross-arts collaborations. Ian was the first artist in residence at StAnza and returned to present his film-poems and, later, ‘maritime’. A new and selected poems included page by page translations into Czech, was funded by The British Council (Adrift, Periplum, 2007). The seagoing elements of his poetry were collected in maritime (Saraband, 2016). He reviews poetry regularly in Northwords Now and has interviewed Jackie Kay and Niall Campbell for Faclan, the Hebridean Book Festival. In recent years, he has balanced oral storytelling with the large scale novel A Book of Death and Fish (Saraband, 2014), described by Kirsty Gunn in The Guardian as a book that “splits the form open like a fresh catch, glistening and raw and singing with the sea”. His non-fiction ranges from Waypoints (Bloomsbury, 2014), shortlisted for the Saltire nonfiction book of the year to Boatlines (Birlinn, 2023).
His main subjects – seas, winds, tides, shorelines and horizons – are expressed in precisely observed details of shape, colour, texture and movement that capture the spirit of a place as well as the topography in poem after poem.
