Luke Wright

Luke Wright

Luke Wright is a spoken word performer and poet from the United States who works in the UK. He is known as one of the country’s leading stand-up poets and first makes his name as the founder of the live poetry collective Aisle16.

Performance and broadcasting

Wright branches out as a solo artist after Aisle16 and comes runner-up in Slam Poets on BBC3, described as the first televised poetry slam in the UK. He becomes a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Saturday Live and wins a 4Talent Award. Since 2006, he writes and stars in three one-man shows, each of which wins five-star reviews at the Edinburgh Festival and tours nationally.

Books and published work

Penguin publishes his first book in 2007. Who Writes This Crap?, co-authored with Joel Stickley, is a book-length project built from everyday rubbish rewritten for performance, and a stage show based on it has a sold-out run at Edinburgh.

Work in festivals and poetry events

Wright also works as a workshop leader, curator and host. He presents The Poetry Arena at the Latitude Festival, which is described as the largest live poetry event in Europe.

Critical reception

His work receives praise from The Guardian and The Observer, both of which describe him in strongly positive terms.