Performance poet Luke Wright _320

PERFORMANCE poet Luke Wright is one of the up-and-coming stars of the Sefton Celebrates Writing literary festival, in the borough later this month.

Will Self, Pam Ayres and Carol Ann Duffy are among the big hitters at the event, now in its second year, taking place from September 22 to 28.

Wright’s show, Poet and Man, comes to the Southport Arts Centre on September 25.

“It’s a mix of stand-up and poetry, and the show itself is about growing up, how I found myself two years ago getting married and buying a house and settling down,” he said.

“Before that, I thought I was still a kid. I never liked the idea of being a ‘man’. I grew up in Colchester and blokes were all geezers, so I just thought I could play the boy for ages.

“When I first started out, I had a huge interest in John Cooper Clarke and loved the idea of taking words on to the stage.

“So I started off just ripping him off, as I’m sure thousands of other people do.

“I thought it was somewhere between being the frontman of a band and a stand-up, with a bit of art thrown in.

“As I got older, I fell more in love with poetry.”

He has spent recent years improving his craft, and now says he is more than happy with his work.

He hopes to publish his first collection in future, but admits the market for poetry volumes isn’t really abuzz at the moment.

“I’m 26, so there’s no huge rush to get something published. I’m proud of my work now but perhaps if I’d put something out three or four years ago I’d be too embarrassed to look at it now.”

The grown-up business of service stations, growing up, train travel, death and wives are typical subjects for the “stand-up poet”.

He now does an increasing amount of work on radio comedy, and, together with friend and fellow poet Joel Stickley, they wrote the satire Who Writes This Cr*p, taking an irreverent swipe at all the meaningless reading matter that can fill a day, from smoothie bottles to newspaper headlines and junk mail.

vickyanderson