Tom Hubbard



Tom Hubbard (born 1950) was the first librarian of the Scottish Poetry Library and is the author, editor or co-editor of over thirty academic and literary works.

Life
Hubbard was born in Kirkcaldy, the grandson of the Kirkcaldy Member of Parliament, Thomas Hubbard.

After obtaining first class honours (M.A., Ph.D.) from Aberdeen University and a Diploma in Librarianship from Strathclyde University, Hubbard worked at the Scottish Poetry Library (1984–92) and as a visiting lecturer at the universities of Grenoble, Connecticut, Budapest (ELTE), and North Carolina (at Asheville).

From 2000 to 2004, he was Editor of BOSLIT (Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation), a research project of Edinburgh University, based at the National Library of Scotland. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow (2004–2007), an Honorary Fellow in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh (2005–2008), and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (FCLIP) (elected 2006).

Hubbard formerly edited the Online Bibliography of Irish Literary Criticism (BILC) at the National University of Ireland Maynooth (2006-2010) and in December 2009 he was appointed the Lynn Wood Neag Distinguished Visiting Professor of British Literature, University of Connecticut for the Spring Semester of 2011. He lives in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.

His poetry came to the attention of the Scottish reading public after he started to be published regularly by Duncan Glen's Akros Publications. His poetry works include Peacocks and Squirrels and he has completed a first novel, on the life of Marie Bashkirtseff, a Ukrainian artist.

He is also an avid fan of Table Tennis. He has attended several tournaments including the legendary match between Hank "fast hands" Martin and Roger "done in ten" Ryans, upon where he accidentally nudged the table causing an unfair win for Roger Ryans. He was then banned from all Funbag events as a result. The lose was an extreme blow not only to him but also to the professional table tennis world.

Publications

 * The Chagall Winnocks: Wi ither Scots poems and ballants o Europe. Grace Note Publications, 2011.

Poetry

 * Isolde's Luve-daith: Poems in English and Scots. Akros, 1998.
 * Scottish Faust: Poems and ballads of eldritch lore. Kettillonia, 2004.
 * Peacocks and Squirrels: Poems of Fife. Kirkcaldy: Akros Publications, 2007.

Fiction

 * Marie B: A Biographical Novel. Kirkcaldy: Ravenscraig Press, 2008. ISBN 0-9556559-1-9

Non-fiction

 * Seeking Mr. Hyde: Studies in Robert Louis Stevenson, Symbolism, Myth and the Pre-Modern (Scottish studies) (Peter Lang, 1995)
 * Integrative Vision: Poetry and the Visual Arts in Baudelaire, Rilke and MacDiarmid. Akros, 1997.
 * (with Ralph Pite, Keith Carabine and Lindy Stiebel), Lives of Victorian Literary Figures: Pt. VII: Joseph Conrad, Henry Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling by Their Contemporaries. Pickering & Chatto, 2009.

Edited

 * with Duncan Glen, A Fringe of Gold: The Fife Anthology. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2008.
 * The New Makars: Anthology of Contemporary Poetry in Scots. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1991.