South London children’s writer becomes OBE in King’s Birthday Honours

Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours.

The performance poet, playwright and children’s author, who grew up in Roehampton, south-west London, is being honored for services to the arts, children’s reading and literature.

Coelho has loved poetry since he was a child, and although he studied archeology at University College London, he continued to write.

In 2014, his debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules was published and the following year he won the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Prize.

His works include the Luna Loves… books, the dark series of Fairy Tales Gone Bad, which are re-imaginings of the classics, and the young adult novel The Girl Who Became A Tree.

Coelho has also released a number of lyrical children’s stories and poetry collections such as Overheard In A Tower Block, If All the World Were… and Poems Aloud.

In 2022, the 12th Children’s Laureate was announced, with his term coming to an end this year.

As he accepted the title, Coelho said book publishing had “a long way to go” in terms of diversity and said he would aim to use his time as laureate to drive change on bookshelves, celebrating new voices as it wants to give “every young person an opportunity to see themselves as a writer”.

Sir Quentin Blake, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen and Julia Donaldson are also among the children’s laureates.

Coelho recently contributed to the anthology Happy Here: 10 Stories From Black British Authors and Illustrators and released the illustrated book of verse My Beautiful Voice.

His 2022 book The Boy Lost In The Maze, which is based on ancient Greek myths, is shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Writing.

Earlier this year, Coelho supported a letter, along with other Children’s Laureates, to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer calling for funding for books and encouraging reading for under-sevens.

The letter, part of a campaign by BookTrust, said the cost of living crisis was “driving more families into poverty” and that it was “essential to recognize that children who read regularly are more likely to overcome disadvantage”.

It also called for long-term national investment to ensure low-income families get the support they need.