Joshua Seigal is a poet, performer and workshop leader who spends his time visiting schools, libraries and theatres around the country and beyond.

Joshua uses poetry to help children develop confidence and improve their literacy skills, either in person at one of his wonderful workshops or through his books and videos. He has an enthusiasm and passion that helps to encourage even the most reluctant, reticent child to give poetry a go, and his books often have useful tips and suggestions included. His poetry is funny and informal and begs to be read out loud. I Don't Like Poetry was shortlisted for the 2017 Laugh Out Loud Awards, our expert reviewer said : Packed with subversive humour and a real insight into the world of children today, I Don’t Like Poetry will please the most reluctant of poem readers whether they want something funny, sad or scary. It is a wonderful collection that shows a new poet at his best.

In 2020 he won the Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13 year olds for I Bet I Can Make You Laugh, a collection of funny poems from Joshua and fellow poets including A.F. Harrold and Andy Seed. On winning the award Joshua thanked all the others who had contributed to the book, saying: "This is very important, the book was not written just by me. I wrote about a third of the poems in the book and I edited the rest. So there are many poems in the book by other authors and poets, so can we give them a round of applause as well.”

He has taken his children's poetry show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, receiving rave reviews and has been an Official National Poetry Day Ambassador spreading the poetry love through schools and colleges. 

"A witty genius" Scholastic

We are delighted to be working with National Poetry Day again this year with the second LoveReading4Kids Poetry Prize, taking place in October 2020. Pupils from across the UK are invited to submit an original poem and the winner will scoop a workshop from Joshua for their school PLUS £250 of new books! You can find out more about the Poetry Prize here.

"Magic" Michael Rosen

Joshua's latest book is Welcome to My Crazy Life, published in paperback by Bloomsbury Education.

Visit www.joshuaseigal.co.uk for plenty of poetry fun and follow on twitter @joshuaseigal