Having curated the Poetry Arena at Latitude for ten years from 2006, poet Luke Wright revisited the festival this summer to present excerpts from his latest book, Later Life Letter, and IP caught up with him later for a chat.
Inspired by the likes of Blur’s Country House and the tapes of Monty Python, Luke started writing poetry at school in Essex. An early chance encounter with John Cooper Clarke as a teenager has led to a successful life as poet and performer, and to 20 years of collaboration with Cooper Clarke that continues today.
From school, Wright studied at the University of East Anglia, where he founded the poetry collective Aisle 16 and subsequently moved to London, telling me that he had given himself three years to make it as a poet, or would then try to find an alternative path. Luckily his career took off sufficiently that, now in his forties, he has only ever really worked as a poet, other than a few temp jobs and a short stint writing scripts for late night television presenters.
Aisle 16 produced a number of poetry/theatre shows, performed at the Edinburgh festival and were commissioned to write Services to Poetry by Candida Lycett Green to commemorate the centenary of her father, John Betjeman’s, birth, which was then adapted into a short film.
In 2006, Wright embarked on creating solo shows of his poetry and has toured extensively ever since. Many of his earlier poems and shows have a satirical, political message or observations about society and he has won several awards over the years, as well as appearing on Radio 4.
Later Life Letter, has been described as his most personal show yet, using spoken word, storytelling and stand-up, in which he delves into his own adoption and what it means to belong.
His current tour, Later Life Letter, has been described as his most personal show yet, using spoken word, storytelling and stand-up, in which he delves into his own adoption and what it means to belong.
Later Life Letter started about five years ago when his wife, Katy, a social worker, was writing a series of later life letters – letters written for adopted children with information about the biological families they came from, usually passed on when the child is old enough to understand. Luke had received his letter at 18, but hadn’t thought about it for years. Watching the care and dedication she put into those letters made him go back and read it again.
That sent him down the path of thinking more about his biological family and having discovered his birth mother on Facebook, Wright used his poetry to examine his thoughts about adoption, growing up with a loving family and delving into his own origin story.
Later Life Letter became a book of 50 poems, from which has developed a touring show, in which about half of the poems feature, along with storytelling and stand-up. Wright is a consummate performer and manages to bring humour and warmth to convey a deeply personal story. Born into a working-class family, but raised by middle-class adoptive parents, Wright uses Later Life Letters to examine privilege, and how it informs his ideas of class.
Alongside the extensive tour of his own show, Wright still supports John Cooper Clake on tour – dates available in the coming months. He has also led poetry and writing workshops in schools and colleges, including an annual week-long residential course with Arvon each summer. He tells me he is still available for schools’ workshops, but as he gigs extensively, it’s now harder to accommodate time to run workshops.
When not touring, Wright returns back to his family home in Suffolk, where he supports several local arts organisations. He is currently writing a new book, to be published in 2028, and is working on a new tour, Yes, launching in January 2027. He tells me this tour is reflective on reaching a certain age, now in his mid-40s, taking stock of life and trying to remain positive about the world.
If you haven’t already done so, I would recommend you introduce your students to his work – there are videos and recordings available through the website below – as an alternative modern perspective on poetry and perhaps even take in a performance at one of the upcoming gigs, with dates through to the end of November.