Christopher Whyte is a novelist in English and a poet in Gaelic. He has also translated the work of a range of European poets into both languages. In October 2022 two new novels, Into the Labyrinth and Towards Awakening, are to be published by the independent imprint Cloud Machineries Press.
His sixth poetry collection Ceum air Cheum / Step by Step (2019) was nominated for two national awards. His seventh, Leanabachd a’ Cho-Ghleusaiche (Childhood of the Composer) (2020) appeared with Clàr of Inverness.
He recently completed an extended sequence of “sixteeners”, Gaelic poems of 16 lines each, under the overall title Ceàrd nan Sia Deug / The Craft of Sixteen.
Between 1995 and 2000 Christopher published four novels in quick succession, of which The Warlock of Strathearn (1997), the autobiography of a 17th century wizard, and The Gay Decameron (1998), a group portrait of ten gay me around an Edinburgh dinner table, earned especial praise.
Born in Glasgow in 1952, after studies at Cambridge Christopher moved to Rome in 1973, teaching at the La Sapienza University until 1985. From 1990 to 2005 he was on the staff of the Scottish Literature department at Glasgow University. His provoking and authoritative readings of canonical Scottish texts in terms of gender and queer theory continue to arouse both admiration and controversy.
Since 2005 Christopher has been based in Budapest, Hungary where he writes and translates full-time.
