Main publications
Oxford Poets 2013
a sequence of Ian's recent maritime poems will be published in the next Oxford Poets anthology. Oxford Poets is now an imprint of Carcanet Press. It is a continuation of the Oxford University Press which had a distinguished history in publishing poets from many countries including the Russian, Joseph Brodsky.
The editors have chosen a group of work which includes all the poems written during the 2011 Cape farewell voyage to St Kilda, the Monachs and Taransay. You can view one of these, with photographs in the Samples section of this site.
A Fathoms and Metres
is an audio CD of traditional maritime stories, produced by an Tobar, Isle of Mull as part of Is A Thing Lost If You Know Where it is? - a multi-arts project linking Scotland's Island arts-centres. It includes musical contributions from Normn Chalmers, Gordon Maclean and Julie Fowlis. A recording made live at St Kilda, during a Cape farewell voyage, is included.
available from an Tobar, an Lanntair, The
Ceilidh Place and The Scottish Storytelling Centre
or direct from
Sail Loft 2, north beach, Stornoway HS1 2XN
(price £10 incl post and packing).
With musical contributions from Peter Urpeth (piano) Maggie Nicols (voice improvisation,
Julie Fowlis (whistle) and Norman Chalmers (flute and Gordon Maclean (various instruments).
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Adrift, new and selected poems in English with Czech translations.(Periplum, Olomouc, 2007)
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It’s About This, a poem log of a winter voyage to the StAnza Festival. (Daemon, Glasgow, 2004)
AT LONGHOPE
(a poem-log sent from the yacht El Vigo to StAnza festival)
It's your track record,
how she leans to the cloth she carries,
how her forward sections dip
and the bounce of recovery.
The swither of that, if any,
in small turbulence astern.
It's the hiss of the line of bubbles.
the one you're not often going to see
in the clutter of several waters
but you have to get the sniff of it.
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Mackerel and Creamola, a collection of short stories with recipe-poems and children's drawings, is a rich portrayal of contemporary life in the Hebrides, drawing on the author's deep knowledge of sea lore. With a forward by Gerry Cambridge, recipes by Donald Urquhart, and an audio CD. (pocketbooks/Polygon, Edinburgh, 2001) Contributor and co-editor for other titles in pocketbooks/Polygon series.
Green Waters, with Ian Hamilton Finlay and Graham Rich. (pocketbooks/Polygon, Edinburgh, 1998)
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PROVIDENCE II, poems and photographs. (The Windfall Press, 1994)
'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, The Herald
Morning Star Publications, many collaborations with Alec Finlay, from 1991. (Held in many public and private collections, including National Library of Scotland and Museum of Modern Art, New York.)
Siud an t-Eilean (editor) anthology of poems and photographs. (Acair, Stornoway, 1993)
Varying States of Grace, from small, perfectly reconstructed moments of island life to longer, loosely textured meditations on European politics, from stories of family to songs of romantic adventure, the care and compassion of Stephen's eye find a state of grace in every situation, his unerring but quiet technique marking out their variations. (Polygon, Edinburgh, 1989)
'Stephen writes well of the bare, islanded north and its sea-scapes, its loneliness and stark, sporadic collisions with geopolitical industrial-technological realities, of the view from the top of the world.' David McDuff in Stand.
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Malin, Hebrides, Minches, collaboration with the photographer Sam Maynard.
Poems and photos published internationally and exhibited at The Third Eye Centre, Glasgow. Associated performances with Sean O' Rourke (JSD band, Alba, The Keltz) and Savourna Stevenson. (Dangaroo Press, Denmark, 1983)
EdinburghGuide » Edinburgh's Festivals » Festival 2011 Reviews
Poems from Small Islands (EIBF Review)
Venue: Charlotte Square Gardens
Running time: 60mins
Performers: Robyn Marsack, Miriam Gamble, Adrian Grima, Maria Rosa Liabres Ripoli, Jenan Selcuk, Ian Stephen
On the evening of Sunday 14th August, the small Peppers Theatre stage was packed with poets – not the usual one or two writers and a presenter; here were five international poets from Belfast, Malta, Majorca, Cyprus and the Isle of Lewis. Introducing the event was Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry Library.
In co-operation with the SPL, Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) arranged a writers’ workshop recently at Crear, Tarbert, Argyll, bringing together these poets from islands around Europe. This was apparently an inspiring and educational collaboration, learning about language with the aim to translate selected poems - say, from English into Turkish. The workshop and subsequent poetry readings in Crear were part of the "Year of Scottish Islands Culture" series of events.
"Crear, space to create, is an inspirational working space with accommodation on the west coast of Scotland, connecting individuals and organisations across the arts worldwide through innovative residencies."
The poets in turn read their own poem followed by the translation by another poet into their language; for instance Northern Irish writer, Miriam Gamble’s witty and romantic “Semi-colon”, was translated into Catalan by Maria Rosa Llabres Ripoli.
An atmospheric narrative about the wild rugged Icelandic landscape, “Ridge above Lake Myvatn” was first read in English by Ian Stephen (with lively Hebridean storytelling skill) and then repeated in the translated version in Maltese by Adrian Grima.
Reading poetry requires fine expression over every syllable, each word and stanza, with flowing pace and rhythm. Adrian, Miriam and Ian have a rich quality of voice and performed their work with style…