Joseph Coelho is a performance poet, children’s author, and playwright. His debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules (Frances Lincoln) won the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Poetry Award (CLiPPA) 2015. His second collection, Overheard in a Tower Block (Otter-Barry Books), was shortlisted for the CLiPPA 2018, longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018, and awarded Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week. Joseph has also been included on The Guardian’s 2018 list ‘Fresh Voices: 50 authors you should read now.’
Joseph's debut picture book, Luna Loves Library Day (Anderson Press), illustrated by Fiona Lumbers, was published to critical acclaim. His latest picture book, If All the World Were... (Frances Lincoln) won the Independent Bookshop Week Award 2019 and was described as a "poignant, lyrical celebration of the love between a grandfather and a child" by The Bookseller. Joseph's non-fiction title How to Write Poems is published by Bloomsbury.
Joseph has written plays for the Polka Theatre, Soho Theatre and the Unicorn Theatre. He nationally tours his own dynamic poetry theatre for young people, as well as performing with the UK's top performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes. Joe has also been a guest poet on Cbeebies’ Rhyme Rocket.
