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). His second collection, Overheard in a Tower Block (Otter-Barry Books), was shortlisted for the CLiPPA, longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and named a 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 (Andersen Press, illustrated by Fiona Lumbers), was published to critical acclaim. His picture book, If All the World Were... (Frances Lincoln, illustrated by Allison Colpoys) won the Independent Bookshop Week Award 2019. The first title in his much-anticipated debut middle grade series, Fairytales Gone Bad: Zombierella (Walker), will publish in September 2020. His 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 tours his own dynamic poetry theatre for young people, and performs with the UK's top performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes. Joe has also been a guest poet on Cbeebies’ Rhyme Rocket.
