Lachlan Mackinnon (born 1956) is a contemporary Scottish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, critic and literary

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

. He was born in Aberdeen and educated at

Charterhouse Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey Londo ...

and Christ Church, Oxford. He took early retirement from his job as a teacher of English at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

in 2011 and moved to Ely with his wife, the poet

Wendy Cope Wendy Cope (born 21 July 1945) is a contemporary English poet. She read history at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She now lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire, with her husband, the poet Lachlan Mackinnon. Biography Cope was born in Erith in Kent (no ...

. His output to date includes five collections of poetry, two critical studies and a

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

. He also reviews regularly for, among others, ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''.

Style of poetry

Critics have identified the influence of the American poet Robert Lowell in Mackinnon's first two collections, ''Monterey Cypress'' and ''The Coast of Bohemia'', published within three years of one another. His third collection, ''The Jupiter Collisions'', contains, among others, two sequence-poems, and has among its subjects retrospective contemplation of the author's childhood and adolescence, both in personal details and in the context of the 'Sixties (rock music, space travel, Minimalist art). One of his most famous papers includes 'prime numbers'. The collection also affords a small number of poems in sonnet form, despite the poet's tendency towards vers-libre, thereby combining the legacy of Lowell with that of

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

. In 2010 he published ''Small Hours'' with Faber. This includes "The Book of Emma", a long poem addressed to a dead friend and written largely in prose. The volume was short-listed for the Forward Prize in 2010. He also contributed to the Bush Theatre's 2011 project '' Sixty Six Books'' for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible He received a Cholmondeley Award in 2011.

Bibliography

* (1983) ''Eliot, Auden, Lowell: Aspects of the Baudelairean Inheritance'' ( Macmillan) * (1988) ''Monterey Cypress'' ( Chatto & Windus) * (1988) ''Shakespeare the Aesthete: An Exploration of Literary Theory'' (Palgrave) * (1991) ''The Coast of Bohemia'' (Chatto & Windus) * (1992) ''The Lives of Elsa Triolet'' (Chatto & Windus) * (1998) ''New Writing 7: An Anthology'' (Vintage) n association with the British Council* (2003) ''The Jupiter Collisions'' ( Faber and Faber) * (2010) ''Small Hours'' ( Faber and Faber) * (2011) ''Sixty Six'' (short piece) for the Bush Theatre * (2017) ''Doves'' ( Faber and Faber) * (2022) ''The Missing Months'' ( Faber and Faber)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackinnon, Lachlan 1956 births Living people People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford People from Aberdeen Scottish journalists Scottish poets Writers from Aberdeen