Kit Wright (born 17 June 1944 in

Crockham Hill Crockham Hill is a village in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. It is about south of Westerham, and Chartwell is nearby. The village has a population of around 270 people. It contains a 19th-century pub, the Royal Oak, and Holy Trinity ch ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

) is the author of more than twenty-five books, for both adults and children, and the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the

Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize is a British literary prize established in 1963 in tribute to Geoffrey Faber, founder and first Chairman of the publisher Faber & Faber. It recognises a single volume of poetry or fiction by a United Kingdom, Irish ...

, the

Hawthornden Prize The Hawthornden Prize is a British literary award that was established in 1919 by Alice Warrender, who was born at Hawthornden Castle. Authors under the age of 41 are awarded on the quality of their "imaginative literature", which can be written ...

, the

Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize was awarded by the Poetry Society of London for a collection of poetry. It is named after Alice Hunt Bartlett who was the American editor of the society's '' Poetry Review'' from 1923 to 1949. The prize was establis ...

and the

Heinemann Award The W. H. Heinemann Award is an award established by William Heinemann who bequeathed funds to the Royal Society of Literature to establish a literary prize, given from 1945 to 2003.Directory of Grants in the Humanities The Heinemann Award is give ...

. After a scholarship to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, he worked as a lecturer at

Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bears t ...

, St Catherine's, in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, then returned to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and a position in the

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

. He is currently a full-time writer.

Early life

Educated at

, Wright moved to

to work as a lecturer. In 1970 he returned to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to work as an Education Officer for the Poetry Society until 1975. From 1977 to 1979 he was Fellow Commoner in Creative Art at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. He subsequently returned to London and works full-time as a writer. He currently contributes monthly to ''

The Oldie ''The Oldie'' is a British monthly magazine written for older people "as a light-hearted alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity", according to its website. The magazine was launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who was its edit ...

'' magazine.

Awards

*1977:

(awarded for ''The Bear Looked Over the Mountain'') *1978:

(awarded for ''The Bear Looked Over the Mountain'') *1985: Arts Council Writers' Award *1990:

(awarded for ''Short Afternoons'') *1991:

(awarded for ''Short Afternoons'') *1995:

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has be ...

*1999: King's Lynn Award for Merit in Poetry *2009: Honorary Fellowship at the

English Association The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by ...

Bibliography

*''Soundings: A Selection of Poems for Reading Aloud'' (editor) Heinemann Education, 1975 *''The Bear Looked Over the Mountain'', Salamander, 1977 *''Arthur's Father'' (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 2008 *''Arthur's Granny'' (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 2022 *''Arthur's Sister'' (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 288 *8 *''Arthur's Uncle'' (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 2222 *''Rabbiting On and Other Poems'' (illustrated by Posy Simmonds), Fontana Lions, 1978 *''Hot Dog and Other Poems'' (illustrated by Posy Simmonds), Kestrel, 1981 *''Professor Potts Meets the Animals in Africa'', Watts, 1981 *''Hot Dog and Other Poems'', Puffin, 1982 *''Bump-Starting the Hearse'', Hutchinson, 1983 *''From the Day Room'', Windows Project, 1983 *''Poems for Ten Year Olds and Over'', Viking Kestrel, 1984 *''Poems for Nine Year Olds and Under'', Puffin, 1985 *''Cat Amorel, 1987 *''One of Your Legs is Both the Same: A Poem'', Turret, 1987 *''Poems 1974-1983'', Hutchinson, 1988 *''Short Afternoons'', Hutchinson, 1989 *''Puffin Portable Poets'' (contributor), Puffin, 1990 *''Funnybunch: New Puffin Book of Funny Verse'', Viking, 1993 *''Tigerella (illustrated by Peter Bailey)'', André Deutsch, 1993 *''Great Snakes'' (illustrated by Posy Simmonds), Viking, 1994 *''Dolphinella'' (illustrated by Peter Bailey), André Deutsch, 1995 *''Rumpelstiltskin'', Scholastic, 1998 *''Hoping It Might Be So: Poems 1974-2000'', Leviathan, 2000 *''Write Away'', Times Supplements, 2000 *''Ode to Didcot Power Station'', Bloodaxe Books, 2014

References

External links

Children's Poetry Archive article on Kit Wright''The Oldie'' magazineVideo of Kit Wright reading his poem ''The Magic Box'' to children
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Kit English children's writers 1944 births Living people 20th-century English poets 21st-century British poets 21st-century English male writers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature People educated at Berkhamsted School Alumni of the University of Oxford English male poets 20th-century English male writers Fellows of the English Association