Joseph Coelho – Poet and Author

Joseph Coelho is an award-winning children's author, performance poet and playwright based in London. 

His debut poetry collection, Werewolf Club Rules, was the 2015 winner of the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award.  His second book, Overheard in a Tower Block, was shortlisted for the 2018 CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award and is longlisted for the 2019 UKLA Book Awards. 

Joseph features in the BBC Teach Understanding Poetry online series, which was produced in association with CLPE and A Productions. 

Joe has written plays for the Polka Theatre, Soho Theatre and the Unicorn Theatre and creates dynamic poetry theatre pieces for young people that he tours nationally. He also performs with the UK's top performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes, visiting venues across the UK. Joseph has also been a guest poet on Cbeebies’ Rhyme Rocket. 

He has written picturebooks, including the Luna Loves… series, illustrated by Fiona Lumbers, as well as the middle-grade Fairytales Gone Bad verse novel series.  His picture book If All The World Were… illustrated by Allison Colpoys won the Independent Bookshop Week, Book Award.  The Girl Who Became a Tree, a beautiful story told in poems, is shortlisted for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie Medal.

His work has poetry and performance at its heart, drawing on over 16 years' experience running dynamic creative literacy sessions in schools. He aims to inspire young people through stories and characters they can recognise.