“I don’t live in a war zone, so I have to speak with respect where this is concerned, but this adventure of setting out is perhaps the only way any form of real change can be possible. If people weren’t leaving the safe and comfortable—and sometimes you don’t exist in safety and comfort, it could be for other reasons—but moving away from home is a form of daring. It’s, in a sense, too, what the poet does. The poet has to see the world.”
—Ishion Hutchinson
In this interview with Griffin Trustee Ian Williams, Ishion Hutchinson delves into the creation of his 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize-shortlisted collection, School of Instructions (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Faber Books). He discusses the inspiration and themes of his work, which memorializes the experiences of West Indian soldiers in World War I and intertwines the story of a young Jamaican boy named Godspeed.
