Ishion Hutchinson, 40, is an original, innovative and fastidious poet whose third collection, School of Instructions, about West Indian volunteer soldiers fighting in the British army in the Middle East during the first world war, has been nominated for the 2023 TS Eliot prize. Born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, Hutchinson comes across as a high-flying autodidact of exceptional energy, responsiveness and warmth. After attending university in Jamaica, he went on to do a master’s at New York University and now teaches poetry on Cornell University’s creative writing programme.
How did School of Instructions come about?
It was originally commissioned by the British poet Karen McCarthy Woolf in response to the Imperial War Museum archives and in preparation for the 100th anniversary celebratiions of the end of world war one. It was intended to look into the participation of Caribbean soldiers in that war. A practical, direct commission. I’d thought that once I’d gone to the archives, I’d find a document, see what interested me about it and write a poem. But something happened – a whole new world opened up – which has, over subsequent years, become School of Instructions.
