Ian Crockatt
Ian Crockatt was born in Perth in 1949 and now lives and works in North Aberdeenshire. He completed an MLitt in Creative Writing in 2010, and a PhD on translating skaldic verse from the Orkneyinga Saga, at Aberdeen University’s Centre for Scandinavian Studies.
A prolific poet and translator, Crockatt has published 10 poetry collections including Flood Alert (Chapman, 1996), The Crucifixion Bird (Northwords Press, 2002), and Blizzards of the Inner Eye (Peterloo Press, 2003).
Crockatt’s poetry won him prizes in two national competitions, one being the Society of Authors’ Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German Translation for Pure Contradiction (Arc, 2012), translations from the work of Rainer Maria Rilke.
His collection Original Myths (Cruachan Publications, 2000) was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2001.
Crockatt is particularly interested in sequences of poems as a form in itself; The Lyrical Beast (a 2004 CD) is a series of 42 sonnets exploring the relationship between our animal and artistic instincts. His collection Skald (Koo Press, 2009) is a series of 30 poems using a form derived from Old Norse skaldic poetry. Translation and communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries remain priorities for Crockatt in his craft. Ian worked with his wife, the artist Wenna Crockatt for the publication of Dawn Walk, a booklet of poems and images with profits going toward the Scottish PEN trust.