Ian Crockatt: Pure Contradiction

This new bi-lingual selection by poet Ian Crockatt gathers poems from all periods of Rilke's life and artistic development. By placing poems of similar themes or modes of expression together instead of arranging them chronologically, underlying themes which Rilke arrived at early in his life are illuminated. Crockatt's powerful translations, with comprehensive introduction and notes, capture Rilke's blend of crafted sensuality and inward-focused spiritual searching. Seasoned Rilke readers as well as those to new to him will find fresh insights into this iconic European writer's work.

Arc Publications

Hardback £12.99 • Paperback £9.99

ISBN 978-1-906570-44-6

Ian Crockatt lives with his ceramic artist wife Wenna on a small croft in the North-East of Scotland, close to gannet-crowded sea cliffs and under the flight-path of seasonally migrating geese. After many years employment as a social worker with children and families, he is working on a PhD thesis at Aberdeen University, focusing on the translation of Old Norse skaldic poetry.

He has published several collections of his own poetry, including Flood Alert (Chapman Publications, 1996), Original Myths (Cruachan Publications, 1999), The Crucifixion Bird (Northwords Folios, 2002), Blizzards of the Inner Eye (Peterloo Press, 2003), The Lyrical Beast (Salix Publications, 2004), and Skald: Viking poems (Koo Press, Aberdeen, 2009, reprinted 2011). Original Myths, which includes etchings by the Scottish artist Paul Fleming, was short-listed for the Saltire Society's Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2000.

He has been a prize winner in a number of national literary competitions, and was awarded Writer's Bursaries by the Scottish Arts Council in 2004 and 2008.

He is currently preparing a collection of poems translated from the work of Rognvaldr Kali Kolsson, a 12th century Earl of Orkney, as well as working on a new collection of his own verse.

A Scottish Book Trust Live Literature Event