Spin!
Working with Apples & Snakes, the "Spoken Word Trailblazers", Britain's Children's Laureate has chosen poems from ten debut poets, all from diverse/under-represented backgrounds. Selected for their qualities of originality, expression and style, they represent the best of a new generation of gifted young poets writing for children and young people. These are poems intended to be read aloud and shared. Themes range from video gaming to ice skating and football, hair, holidays, sisterhood, generational memories, friendship, the sense of self, personal experiences, music, and family life.
Fifty poems here open windows on a new generation's thoughts, dreams and desires, and on an exciting new wave of poetic talent.
The poets are Anneliese Amoah, Antoinette Brooks, Sadatu Futa, Eileen Gbagbo, Shagufta K. Iqbal, Gayathiri Kamalakanthan, Rowan Kiffin-Murray, Jay Sandhu, Ioney Smallhorne, and Jasmin Thien. Three new poems by Joseph Coelho are also included.
Joseph Coelho is the Waterstones Children’s Laureate, 2022-24. He has long been involved in mentoring young poets of promise, working with Apples and Snakes, whose special mission is to promote spoken-word poetry from under-represented communities.
Ruthine Burton completed the Inaugural Pathways Into Children's Publishing in 2021. Her parents came originally from Dominica and French Guiana. She has a B.A. hons in Visual Art from the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, and also an M.Sc. in Software Engineering. She has worked as a pavement portrait artist and in the games industry. Ruthine is one of the three illustrators featured in Our Rights, edited by Jake Hope (Otter-Barry Books). She is based in South West London.