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Scott Hightower

スコット・ハイタワー

Sukotto Haitawā

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1952 （Lampasas, Texas）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English, Spanish
Residence History
Modest working ranch near Lometa, Texas → New York City → Spain

Career

Occupations
poet, teacher, reviewer
Active Years
2001-2023
Affiliations
New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Fashion Institute of Technology
Influenced By
J.D. McClatchy, William Matthews, Theocritus, Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop

Education

University of Texas at Austin
communications
Degree: BA
Year of Graduation: 1973
Country: United States
studied classical civilization, literature, and performance
Antioch College
teaching
Degree: Master's degree in teaching
Year of Graduation: 1977
Country: United States
Columbia University
Degree: MFA
Year of Graduation: 1994
Country: United States
studied under J.D. McClatchy

Awards

Hayden Carruth Award for New and Emerging Poets
2004
Work: Part of the Bargain
Organization: Copper Canyon Press
Result: 受賞
Willis Barnstone Translation Prize
Work: a translation from Spanish
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Tin Can Tourist

2001 poetry collection

The poems cover the plains of Texas to the streets of the Bronx; from the bedroom to the Spanish Steps of Rome and the Chora Church of Istanbul and back. The poems examine cultural highs and lows.

cultural highs and lowsmeditative awareness

Natural Trouble

2003 poetry collection

The theme of inheritance extends through changes of landscape and bad weather.

inheritancechanges of landscape

Part of the Bargain

2005 poetry collection

Explores the reconciliations that make one an individual, a part of a community, and a conscientious heir to a culture. Valences of biology, sexuality, nationality swirl together.

reconciliationsindividual and community

Self-evident

2012 poetry collection

Departs from a notion that the practice of writing is at the elemental core of democracy. Poetry seeks a foundation of the commonwealth in the truth of the individual.

democracyintegrity of Language

Imperative to Spare

2023 poetry collection

This necessary volume blazes a trail through despair to wisdom.”

despairwisdom

Bibliography

  • Tin Can Tourist
  • Natural Trouble
  • Part of the Bargain
  • Self-evident
  • Hontanares
  • Tartessos
  • Contraído
  • Imperative to Spare

Translations of Works

  • Hontanares (Spanish translation)
  • Tartessos (Spanish translation)
  • Contraído (Spanish/English)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
philosophical idyllsobservant pilgrim traveling through the worldsoliloquies, laments, eccentric ponderings
Recurring Motifs
inheritancereconciliationsbiology, sexuality, nationalitychanges of landscape and bad weather

Legacy

American poet, teacher, and reviewer. Author of eight books of poetry. Recipient of the Hayden Carruth Award. Teaches writing at NYU's Gallatin School. Engages in Spanish translations.

Quotes

  • The most exciting quality of Hightower’s work is its poetic and paradoxical unifying of emotional and intellectual depth with a marvelous quietness. Its lively incidents and anecdotes are grounded, rooted, in meditative awareness.
    Source: Blurb for Tin Can Tourist (2001)
  • Scott Hightower has Marianne Moore’s scissors and Elizabeth Bishop’s spectacles and he has written a book in the spirit of their adventurous precisions.
    Source: Blurb for Natural Trouble (2003)
  • This necessary volume blazes a trail through despair to wisdom.”
    Source: Blurb for Imperative to Spare (2023)

Trivia

  • Youngest child of a family that lived on a modest working ranch near Lometa, Texas.
  • His brother Billie Jewel Hightower (July 27, 1950 – Oct. 15, 1992) became a noted painter in Texas, Chicago area, and Florida.
  • Faculty at Fashion Institute of Technology.