Luke Wright’s evolving career: From pop-punk poetry to intimate memoirs
Evie Glen considers the career of former Aisle 16 poetry boyband member Luke Wright and sees an artist who has become more reflective in his later work
Since 2008, Luke Wright has been one of the biggest names in poetry, particularly the late naughties school of punk and pop poets fronted by John Cooper Clarke. In the spirit of the Beats, and a more popular precursor to contemporary slam poetry, Britain’s pop poets were rock and roll stars as much as they were writers. Their sound latched on to the tail-end of Britpop, a natural development from Damon Albarn’s popularisation of French literary references in guitar music.
Wright has been writing and performing his poetry since he was 17; though, as he told the Poetry Non-Stop podcast in 2019, garnering attention so young forced him to develop in the public eye. Much of his earlier verse, he felt, bore the emulated traces of poets he admires: John Betjeman, Philip Larkin and Caroline Bird, among others. Reflecting now in middle age, he urged younger poets not to be so rash and to give their writing time to develop in private.
Regardless, Wright has enjoyed the rarity of being a full-time writer for most of his adult life, producing 15 solo poetry shows, three plays, five collections and six pamphlets. That career has been sustained in no small part by the inspiring community of writers, musicians and artists that surround him. His books quote praise from Cooper Clarke himself and Pete Doherty.
Reaching the point in his career where reflection becomes a dominating force, Wright began writing his memoir in poetry. Later Life Letter muses on the effects of his own ‘later life letter’, a document written by a social worker to an adopted child which details their life from birth to adoption. Wright explores themes of identity, memory and belonging through the prism of his own life, one element of which is the complex experience of being raised in sheltered suburbia despite being born in a tower-block estate. At this event, Wright will perform some extracts from his memoir and chat to Emma Collins, director of Push The Boat Out poetry festival, about the process of its creation.
Luke Wright: Later Life Letter, Edinburgh Futures Institute, 20 August, 6.15pm.