26 Jun 2025
10:00am - 10:45am
About the author
Joseph Coelho’s debut poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules won the CLPE Poetry Award 2015. His poetry collection Overheard in a Tower Block, published by Otter-Barry Books in 2017 was shortlisted for the CLiPPA Poetry Award and longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His verse novel The Girl Who Became a Tree (Otter-Barry Books) was shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2021. As well as poetry, Joseph also writes plays and picture books. Joseph was the Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022-24. The Boy Lost in the Maze won the Yoto Carnegie 2024 Medal for Writing. He was awarded an OBE in 2024 and is nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2025. He lives in Edinburgh.
About the book
In this highly acclaimed and prize-winning verse novel, Joseph Coelho brilliantly blends Greek myth with a 21st century quest. In Ancient Greece Theseus makes a dangerous and courageous journey to find his father, finally meeting the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. While Theo, a modern-day teenage boy, finds himself on a maze-like quest to find his own father. Each story tells of a boy becoming a man and discovering what true manhood really means. The path to self-discovery takes Theo through ‘those thin spaces where myth, magic and reality combine’. Doubts, difficulties and dangers must be faced as Theo discovers the man he will become.
About the author event
We would like to thank Arts Council England for funding this free, virtual event.
Join us on Thursday 26 June at 10am to have the opportunity to:
- Hear Joseph Coelho read from A Boy Lost in the Maze
- Join an interactive session that focus on the theme of masculinity, both positive and toxic
- Take part in a poetry writing activity
- Join a Q and A with Joseph around the book, poetry masculinity and being a writer.
You will receive a confirmation email once you have registered. This will include your link to join the event.
All attendees will be muted and will not be able to turn their cameras on, but you will be able to communicate with Matt through a live chat box.
If you have any other questions about the event, please contact connecting.stories@literacytrust.org.uk