A Love Story To Luton

(Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.)

Naz Knight was born, raised and made in Luton and is first‑generation British‑born Caribbean. The Collateral Beauty Series first launched on 22 September 2021 at Wardown House, Museum & Gallery. It is a love story to Luton told through poetry, theatre and prose – rooted in place, memory, identity and transformation.

The series is being re-released in Autumn 2026, opening a new chapter for this body of work while staying true to its original spirit. Across the series, Luton is both setting and witness: a post‑industrial, working‑class town where Eastern Caribbean heritage, Black British identity and everyday survival intersect. These works invite readers and audiences to look again at the town, its people and the beauty that can be found in lives and places too often overlooked.

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A Knight at the Museum

LUTON, BEDFORDSHIRE. Naz Knight was born, raised and made in Luton and is first‑generation British‑born Eastern Caribbean. The Collateral Beauty Series launched on 22 September 2021 at Wardown House, Museum & Gallery and is one story explored in three ways – Poetry, Play and Prose.

The launch at Wardown House was both a homecoming and a declaration: a Knight at the Museum, placing Luton’s stories, voices and imaginations at the heart of the gallery space. Now, with the series being re-released in Autumn 2026, that moment continues to resonate as the beginning of an ongoing journey to honour the town’s people, histories and hidden collateral beauty.

The Collateral Beauty Series

The Collateral Beauty Series (CBS) centres Libby – a young Black woman from Luton – as she navigates grief, belonging, ambition and self‑discovery in a town that is often misread from the outside. Through Libby’s journey, personal story becomes cultural reflection, and love for Luton is allowed to be complex, layered and unapologetically local.

What began as one story explored in three ways has grown into a wider constellation of work, with the re-release in Autumn 2026 bringing renewed attention to the series and its continuing evolution.

I Am Collateral Beauty – autobiographical fiction.
Poetry E.motion: Collateral Beauty Collection – poetry and prose with a reflective journey thread.
I Can See What The Dark Looks Like – multimedia poetry‑theatre play.
Flutterbys Fables – fairytales and fables shaped by heritage, memory and imagination.

Our books & anthologies | Poetry E.motion | Media kit downloads

Poetry · Play · Prose · Story

CBS: Play

Sometimes a flame needs darkness to ignite.

I Can See What The Dark Looks Like is a multimedia poetry‑theatre work that explores grief, faith, survival and the quiet work of healing. It brings spoken word, sound, image and movement together to honour lives lived in the shadows and in the light.

CBS: Poetry

Poetry E.motion: Collateral Beauty Collection gathers poems, prose, reflections and guiding prompts into a journey through feeling and language. It offers readers a space to notice, name and move through their own emotional landscapes.

Own Your Own Mind.

CBS: Prose

I Am That I Am.

I Am Collateral Beauty is an autobiographical novel rooted in the streets, estates and inner worlds of Luton. It follows Libby as she tries to reconcile where she comes from with who she is becoming, while carrying the weight and wonder of her inheritance.

CBS: Story

Flutterbys Fables extends the world of Collateral Beauty into modern fairytales, folklore and allegory. These stories draw on Caribbean and Black British traditions to explore courage, tenderness, transformation and the magic of everyday life.

Author bio (PDF) | Press release (PDF)

About Naz Knight

Naz Knight is a poet, writer and interdisciplinary artist whose work lives at the meeting point of words, sound, colour, movement and energy. Born, raised and made in Luton, and first‑generation British‑born Eastern Caribbean, she creates work that holds complexity with care and invites people to recognise their own beauty and power.

Before writing biographical fiction, Naz founded the Queen’s Award‑winning NINE RED Presents… CIC, a social enterprise rooted in community, creativity and collective healing. Her first book, Butterfly Drinks Crocodile Tears (2016), wove art, prose and poetry into a single body of work.

Naz often describes herself as a word mechanic, saying that she “never chose to write – words chose me to be their writer.” Her practice explores the contrasting yet interconnected elements of light, projection, sound, movement and stillness to transform and connect people and spaces.

“This is my scream of the butterfly, letting the world see the beauty I see in the place I call home. I guess you could call it a love story to Luton.”
– Naz Knight