Dr Patrick Wright

Professional biography

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 had articles published on Ted Hughes, Wilfred Owen, Gerald Manley Hopkins, Seamus Heaney, Michael Symmons Roberts, Marguerite Porete, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

My current book project is on recent and contemporary developments in ekphrastic practice. The title is Beyond Ekphrasis: Dynamic Interactions Between the Poet and the Image (forthcoming by Vernon Press). 

I am also writing a memoir where I seek to blend elements of life writing with prose poetry, along with new poems, which I hope will eventually lead to a third collection. 

Other interests include the period circa. 1880 to 1920, literary symbolism, Gothic and Decadent literature, folk and fairy tales, 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)

For 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). 

I am an educationalist, creative writing tutor, and organise a variety of outreach activities. This has included poetry workshops at the University of Cambridge, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum, the Poetry School, Imagine Festival (Belfast), 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 publications such as Writing in Education 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

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)

Advance HE Fellowship (FHEA): Level 1 preconceptions and obstacles in studying poetry 

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

Judge of the Milton Keynes Literary Festival Creative Writing Competition (2023-present)

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

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

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