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Joseph Hutchison

Goodreads Author

Born

in Denver, The United States

Website

https://www.jhwriter.com

Genre

Poetry, Nonfiction, Fiction

Influences

William Blake, Robert Bly, James Wright, W B Yeats, [a:W. S. Merwin|58 ...more

Member Since

June 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jhwriter

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I was born on the westernmost edge of the Great Plains. My parents made sure there were lots of books in the house for my younger brother and me, but what I read most avidly was Poe, and to this day my work displays some Poe-ish qualities. I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1972, and received an M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1974, where I studied with the very underrated Irish expatriate poet, fiction writer and essayist George McWhirter; the musicality and imaginative openness of his work are qualities I aspire to in my own.

In the "real life" that followed graduate school I worked in a variety of jobs, from clerking in a book store to substitute teaching in and around Denver. I toyed for a long whil I was born on the westernmost edge of the Great Plains. My parents made sure there were lots of books in the house for my younger brother and me, but what I read most avidly was Poe, and to this day my work displays some Poe-ish qualities. I graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1972, and received an M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1974, where I studied with the very underrated Irish expatriate poet, fiction writer and essayist George McWhirter; the musicality and imaginative openness of his work are qualities I aspire to in my own.

In the "real life" that followed graduate school I worked in a variety of jobs, from clerking in a book store to substitute teaching in and around Denver. I toyed for a long while with the idea of pursuing a Ph.D., but those were the heydays of Barthes and Derrida, who struck me as intellectual con-men (they still do), and I felt there was a good deal of bad faith in the whole process. I remember dipping my toes in those academic waters by auditing a class focused on Deconstruction. The professor in charge remarked that the theories we'd be studying were "mainly crap," but added, "Of course, you'll have to learn them if you hope to get a teaching job." A few months later a friend of mine, at the fag-end of his Ph.D. experience at the same institution, was blocked from writing his thesis on John Fowles, because (according to his advisor) "Fowles isn't a serious writer." The sheer idiocy of that statement soured me on further formal education, but what it boiled down to was the realization that I was too arrogant and pig-headed for such games. Luckily, I stumbled into a position as a staff marketing writer for a large Colorado-based bank network, and ever since I've mostly made my living as a writer for hire, although I occasionally teach both online and face-to-face courses for both undergraduate and graduate level students. I live with my wife, Melody Madonna, a marvelous yoga teacher (see her Harmony Hill Yoga site), in the mountains southwest of Denver.

In the all the years of my writing life, I've responded to and aspired to a quality in poetry that I can only call "clarity." Not that I'm interested in clarity at the expense of honest complexity; I despise those bland accounts of near-death sailing "into the Light." Light is not always benign: it blinds as often as it offers revelation, as anyone who's grown up in my part of the world would know. That contradiction, if it is one (it could be that contradiction exists only in the mind), fascinates me continually. When the writing is going well, it's the feeling of seeing into that alerts me to the fact. I get the same feeling from reading anyone else's good poem. In one entitled "Small Wild Crabs Delighting on Black Sand," James Wright says, "I don't want to know. I want to see." That's what I say. ...more

385 posts
Joseph Hutchison's Blog

Zoom Reading with Hollander, Daniels, and Manning

Join Andrea Hollander, Jim Daniels, and Katie Manning for an online Zoom reading at The Writers’ Place in Kansas City, Missouri. The event will take place at 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time. The reading will be recorded, so if you’re interested but can’t make the livestream, check Andrea’s website (www.andreahollander.net) a few days after the reading... Read More

The post Zoom Reading with Hollander, Dani

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Joseph Hutchison’s books

Average rating: 4.03 · 97 ratings · 30 reviews · 30 distinct works

	Malala: Poems for Malala Yousafzai by Joseph Hutchison (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Andrea L. Watson (Editor) 3.73 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bed of Coals 3.63 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Marked Men 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Thread of the Real 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The World As Is: New & Selected Poems, 1972-2015 4.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Earth-Boat it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2012 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Satire Lounge it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cliff Swallow at Mesa Verde by Joseph Hutchison (Goodreads Author), David Anthony Martin (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator) 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Undersides of Leaves 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1985	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Under Sleep's New Moon: Rescued Poems, 1970-1990 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Joseph is currently reading

The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (4 Volume Set)

by Christopher W. Alexander

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Sep 11, 2016 10:17AM

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Joseph’s Recent Updates

Joseph Hutchison wrote a new blog post Zoom Reading with Hollander, Daniels, and Manning Join Andrea Hollander, Jim Daniels, and Katie Manning for an online Zoom reading at The Writers’ Place in Kansas City, Missouri. The event will take p Read more of this blog post »
Feb 16, 2026 03:50AM · like
Joseph is now following Marc Zegans and Jim
Aug 18, 2025 12:28PM
Joseph liked Jim's review of Cliff Swallow at Mesa Verde: "From ancient stars that now only exist as remembered light through extinct civilizations down to frozen bacteria everything is making its way inexorably towards death in curls, curves or flits because even the apparent immortality of the sparrows in " Read more of this review »
Aug 16, 2025 11:58AM · see review

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