Kit Wright



Kit Wright (born 17 June 1944) is an English poet.

After a scholarship to Oxford University, he worked as a lecturer in Canada, then returned to England and a position in the Poetry Society. He is currently a full-time writer.

Life
Wright, was born in Crockham Hill, Kent.

Educated at Oxford University, he moved to Canada to work as a lecturer. In 1970 he returned to London 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.

He subsequently returned to London and works full-time as a writer. He contributes monthly to The Oldie magazine.

He is the author of more than 25 books, for both adults and children,

Recognition
Wright is the winner of awards including an Arts Council Writers' Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and (jointly) the Heinemann Award.

Awards

 * 1977: Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize (awarded for The Bear Looked Over the Mountain)
 * 1978: Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (awarded for The Bear Looked Over the Mountain)
 * 1985: Arts Council Writers' Award
 * 1990: Heinemann Award (awarded for Short Afternoons)
 * 1991: Hawthornden Prize (awarded for Short Afternoons)
 * 1995: Cholmondeley Award
 * 1999: King's Lynn Award for Merit in Poetry
 * 2009:  Honorary Fellowship at the English Association

Poetry

 * Treble Poets (by Stephen Miller, Elizabeth Maslen, & Kit Wright). London: Chatto & Windus, 1974.
 * Penguin Modern Poets 1 (by James Fenton, Blake Morrison, & Kit Wright). London & New York: Penguin, 1995.


 * 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, 1978
 * Arthur's Granny (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 1978
 * Arthur's Sister (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 1978
 * Arthur's Uncle (illustrated by Eileen Browne), Methuen, 1978
 * Rabbiting On and Other Poems (illustrated by Posy Simmonds), Fontana Lions, 1978
 * 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


 * Cat Among the Pigeons, Viking Kestrel, 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


 * 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

Juvenile

 * Hot Dog and Other Poems (illustrated by Posy Simmonds). Harmondsworth, UK: Kestrel, 1981.
 * Tigerella (illustrated by Peter Bailey). New York & London: Scholastic, 1993.
 * Dolphinella (illustrated by Peter Bailey). London: Andre Deutsch, 1995.
 * Poems for Nine-Year-Olds and Under (illustrated by Michael Foreman). Harmondsworth, UK: Viking Kestrel, 1984.
 * Poems for Over Ten-Year-Olds (illustrated by Michael Foreman). Harmondsworth, UK: Viking Kestrel, 1984
 * The Magic Box: Poems for Children (illustrated by Peter Bailey). London: Macmillan, 2009.

Edited

 * *Funnybunch: A new Puffin Book of funny verse'' (illustrated by Michael Foreman). Viking, 1993
 * also published as The New Puffin Book of Funny Verse. London: Puffin, 1995.