About Luke
I have a PhD in English Literature (University of Sussex, 2015), MA in Literature, Religion and Philosophy (University of Sussex, 2009), and BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature (University of Oxford, 2001).
As an academic, I specialise in British and American poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries, with a particular focus on American Beat and ‘counterpoetic’ writers, and the influence of the British Romantics on these later movements. I have published and spoken widely on these topics (see ‘Publications’ and ‘Media’ below), and am currently writing my first book, William Blake and Allen Ginsberg: Romanticism, Counterculture and Radical Reception.
My work is highly interdisciplinary, exploring intersections between literature and other fields including social and political history, esotericism and the history of religion.
I have taught at the University of Sussex, University of Chichester, and University of Roehampton. I have also worked as a secondary school teacher and as a political campaign organiser.
Publications
(PDF files of many of my chapters and articles can be downloaded from my Academia.edu page.)
Journal special issue (guest editor)
‘The Artist of the Future Age: William Blake, Neo-Romanticism, Counterculture and Now’ (co-edited with Douglas Field), Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 98.1 (2022).
Chapters in edited collections
‘Blake and the Visionary’, in Allen Ginsberg in Context, ed. Erik Mortenson (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2026).
‘“One physical-mental inspiration of thought”: Allen Ginsberg and Black Mountain poetics’, in The Beats, Black Mountain, and New Modes in American Poetry, ed. Matt Theado (Clemson University Press, 2021), 35–46.
‘Psychedelic Romanticism: Ginsberg, Blake and Wordsworth’, in Psychedelicacies: More Food for Thought from Breaking Convention, ed. Nikki Wyrd (Strange Attractor Press, 2019), 215–224.
‘Beat Britain: poetic vision and division in Albion’s “underground”’, in The Routledge Handbook of International Beat Literature, ed. A. Robert Lee (Routledge, 2018), 45–57.
‘Tangled up in Blake: the triangular relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats’, in Rock and Romanticism: Blake, Wordsworth, and Rock from Dylan to U2, ed. James Rovira (Lexington Books, 2018), 1–18.
Journal articles
‘Historicizing Sixties Counterculture via Paul Goodman and the Beats’, Self & Society: An International Journal for Humanistic Psychology 44.4 (2016), 314–321.
‘Allen Ginsberg’s “Wales Visitation” as a neo-Romantic response to Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”’, Romanticism 19.2 (2013), 207–217.
‘Allen Ginsberg’s Blakean Albion’, Comparative American Studies 11.3 (2013), 227–242.
Media
‘“Relationships of ownership / They whisper in the wings”: Bob Dylan and William Blake.’ Presentation at Global Blake: Musical Afterlives symposium, 2024. YouTube | Spotify
“Some spiritual, political and academic contexts of Allen Ginsberg’s Blake recordings.” Presentation at Global Blake: Musical Afterlives symposium, 2024. YouTube
‘“Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies!”: Allen Ginsberg’s retellings of his “Blake Vision”.’ Presentation at Global Blake symposium, 2022. YouTube
‘Allen Ginsberg and his Blakean revival.’ Interview on Rejected Religion podcast, 2022.
Part 1: YouTube | Spotify | Apple | SoundCloud
Part 2: YouTube | Spotify | Apple | SoundCloud
‘Ginsberg, Blake and Wordsworth: Romantic Poetry and Psychedelic Consciousness.’ Presentation at Breaking Convention conference, 2017. YouTube