Dr Patrick Wright

Professional biography

I am a poet and academic. My BA First-class honours was in Art History from the Manchester Metropolitan University, and I have two MAs (both Distinctions), in English Studies and in Creative Writing, from the University of Manchester. The latter took place within the Centre for New Writing, where I was taught by Vona Groarke and Jeanette Winterson. My first Ph.D. was also awarded by the University of Manchester, in English Studies, and I have a second Ph.D. from the Open University in Creative Writing. I am particularly interested in twentieth-century and contemporary British and American poetry, prose poetry, ekphrasis, word-image relationships, hybrid forms of writing, and how Creative Writing and English Literature intertwine.

I have a poetry collection, Full Sight of Her (2020), which was nominated for the John Pollard Prize, and a pamphlet, Nullaby (2017). Both books are published by Eyewear. My second poetry collection, Exit Strategy (2025), is published by Broken Sleep Books.

My poems have appeared in Magma, Poetry Ireland, Poetry Wales, The North, Gutter, Poetry Salzburg, and The London Magazine.

I have twice been included in the Best New British and Irish Poets anthology and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

I am an Associate Lecturer and Honorary Associate at the Open University, where I teach a range of Arts and Humanities subjects, specialising in English Literature and Creative Writing.

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Before joining the Open University, I worked as an Associate Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University in the Manchester School of Art, where I taught and coordinated several modules, assisted with the development of new programmes of study, and was a member of university committees and groups.

I also worked for over ten years at the University of Manchester as a specialist tutor for SpLD students, and I maintain an interest in educational theory and how different learners learn. 

Research interests

My first Ph.D., in English Studies at the University of Manchester, focused on the idea of the sacred - from the late Middle Ages to the present day - and included a psychoanalytic reading of female devotional literature (Rapturous Visions: Mysticism, the sublime, and the discourse of sacrifice). This was funded by the AHRC and supervised by Professor Terry Eagleton and Dr. Anke Bernau.

My second Ph.D., in Creative Writing at the Open University (Exit Strategy: Ekphrasis through the lens of the abstract and the formless), was supervised by Jane Yeh and Siobhan Campbell. This comprised a poetry collection and critical commentary on ekphrastic practice, experiments with form, pedagogic approaches to ekphrasis, and misperception in creative writing.

My critical writing centres on twentieth-century and contemporary English literature. My research engages with poetry especially, and word-image relationships.

My most recent book chapter is on the ekphrastic prose poem, in Prose Poetry in Theory and Practice. ed. Anne Caldwell and Oz Hardwick (Routledge, 2022). I have published articles on Ted Hughes, Wilfred Owen, Gerald Manley Hopkins, Seamus Heaney, Michael Symmons Roberts, Marguerite Porete, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

My current book project, Beyond Ekphrasis: Dynamic Interactions Between the Poet and the Image (forthcoming from Vernon Press), is on contemporary developments in ekphrastic practice. I am also working on a third poetry collection. 

Other interests include the period 1880 to 1920, literary symbolism, the Gothic, the therapeutic benefits of creative writing, and the use of psychoanalytic theory in the study of literature.   

My English Studies MA dissertation focused on the periodisation of the sublime and Gothic, making use of feminist and psychoanalytic theory as a way to develop the idea of a feminine sublime. 

Research groups

I am an active member of the following School of Arts and Humanities research groups: 

Contemporary Cultures of Writing (https://www5.open.ac.uk/arts/research/contemporary-cultures-of-writing/)

Open Ecologies (https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/groups/open-ecologies)

Creative Interactions (https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/groups/creative-interactions)

Health and the Arts (https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/groups/health-and-arts)

Gender and Otherness in the Humanities (https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/centres/goth)

Digital Humanities (https://www5.open.ac.uk/arts/research/digital-humanities/?nocache=65aff686647cf)

Teaching interests

At the Open University, I currently teach A111: Discovering the arts and humanities, A112: Cultures, A215: Creative writing, A233: Telling stories: the novel and beyond, A335: Literature in transition, and A363: Advanced creative writing.

At the University of Salford, I taught Literary and Cultural Theory and Modernism (two Level 1 modules).

At the Manchester Metropolitan University, I taught Art Practice and the History of Art, Introduction to Visual Culture, Introduction to Design (Level 1); Core Theories and Methodologies (Level 2); The Irrational in Visual Culture, Locating Modernism, Art and Spirituality, Apocalypse, Impressionism and Post-impressionism, and Hollywood Cinema (Level 3). 

At the University of Manchester, I taught Textual Communities: Medieval codexes to the postmodern hypertext (Level 1). 

Impact and engagement

I am an educationalist, creative writing tutor, and organise a variety of outreach activities. This has included poetry workshops in partnership with the University of Cambridge, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, the Poetry School, Imagine Festival (Belfast), Bloomsbury Festival, City Lit, and Lancashire Libraries.

My approach to ekphrasis has been considered innovative and influential by poets including Helen Mort and Tamar Yoseloff. Likewise, my contribution to recent developments in prose poetry is recognised by Paul Hetherington and Cassandra Atherton.

The pedagogic application of my research has been presented in scholarly journals, such as Axon, Writing in Practice, and The Conversation. 

I am also co-director of an ecotherapy and creative writing project called Reenchantment with my partner, Rowan St Clair, who is an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist, trained through the Tariki Trust. This includes therapeutic workshops and courses that help us to rediscover a sense of wonder in nature. 

Professional development

CPD Certificates in the following: Enhancing Practice in Online Rooms, Open University, July 2020; Place Writing, Manchester Writing School, Manchester Metropolitan University, May 2016; Creative Writing, Manchester Writing School, Manchester Metropolitan University, June 2015; and Foundation Studies in Art Psychotherapy, June 2012

AHRC-TORCH, Public Engagement with Research, The Oxford Research Centre, University of Oxford, June 2021

HND Diploma (Distinction), Foundation Studies in Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University, June 1999

External collaborations

Papers presented at the following conferences: National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE), Great Writing, AHRC doctoral training partnership, CHASE Creative Writing Residency, Contemporary Cultures of Writing, and the Norman Nicholson Festival

Senior Fellowship, Advance HE, supported by case studies focused on online resources, research impact, and knowledge exchange (2024-present) 

Reviewer for Literary Studies and Creative Writing, Bloomsbury Publishing (2023-present)

Judge of the Creative Writing Competition (poetry), Milton Keynes Festival (2023-2024)

Examiner for AS and A-Level English Literature, Cambridge Assessment (2018-present)

Contributing Editor of Write Out Loud: articles on modern and contemporary poetry (2018-2019)

Fellowship, Higher Education Academy, supported by a case study on Level 1 students' preconceptions of reading and writing poetry (2016-2024)

Guest Lecturer at The Atkinson, Southport: 'Edgelands: The Sefton Coast in words and images' (2016) 

Funded by the AHRC for MA and PhD in English Studies, University of Manchester (2002-2007)

Funded by the Henry Plummer Postgraduate Scholarship, University of Manchester (2003-2004)

International links

I am an internationally published poet with poems appearing in prominent magazines and journals such as Meniscus, Poetry Ireland, Belfast Review, Poetry Salzburg, Southword, Berlin Lit, Madrid Review, and The Worcester Review. 

Contract with Vernon Press, based in Delaware, USA, for an academic book on recent developments in ekphrastic practice. This collaboration highlights my engagement with the global academic community.