Digging for stories

While I loved my course, I did spend too much time doing extra-curricular things with the UCL Drama Society. I directed 12 Angry Men at the UCL Garage Theatre and I directed The Crucible at the UCL Bloomsbury. At the same time I was writing poetry, and I discovered the Poetry Society and the Poetry Cafe. I did my first gig at the open mic. I remember running there from my part-time job, wearing this ill-fitting suit that my mum got me from a charity shop. My knees were shaking, but I got up and did a poem. And then I got hooked on that.

I never ended up working in archaeology. I was sidetracked by poetry and writing. I got involved with the spoken word group Apples And Snakes. They would put poets into schools to get kids writing and that opened up a whole career path for me in creative writing sessions in schools and education settings, although I had to do lots of other jobs as well to survive in London. I also started to get theatre contracts. Talawa Theatre Company were touring a children’s show called Anansie Steals The Wind. It was coming to UCL Bloomsbury, and because I had directed there before, I was made assistant director. That was my first big gig in theatre.

I wrote the poem If All The World Were Paper while working on a project for the theatre company Oily Cart. Then I found myself performing it a lot at school gigs and educational arts projects. It became my ‘hero poem’. In 2005, a poetry editor called Pie Corbett saw me perform it, and he was putting an anthology together for Macmillan, so it was published in 2006 and became my first paid publishing experience. I got £50.

In 2009, I started really trying to get a book deal. I went to the London Book Fair three years running. Occasionally, an editor would give me five minutes, look over my manuscripts and give me advice. But on the third year, the very last day, I was passing a panel where they were discussing children's poetry. I heard a lady saying “we need more children’s poetry”, so I went up to her afterwards. It was Janetta Otter-Barry, who then worked for Frances Lincoln Publishing. I met with her in 2012, and in 2014, my first poetry collection – Werewolf Club Rules! – came out. It won the CLiPPA Poetry Award, which opened the door to other publishers, then things snowballed. I had a backlog of work and I was keen to write for all ages, so I just kept writing, and haven’t stopped. I have about 35 books out now.

Getting nominated for the Carnegie Medal was huge. I was longlisted with Overheard In A Tower Block, then shortlisted with The Girl Who Became A Tree. Both were published by Janetta Otter-Barry, who had set up her own publishing house. It was lovely to get those accolades – I felt like it was my best writing. I was consciously trying to push the envelope.

When I was shortlisted to become Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate, I was amazed. You expect only people of a certain age to be considered. I broke down when I got the news that I’d been chosen, because I was just so awed. I’m the youngest person ever to do it.

I’m focusing on three areas. The first is joining a library in every library authority in the UK. I’m nearly there, actually. I want to encourage people to use their library – I’m very passionate about that. I’m also doing a series of videos called Poetry Prompts. They are short videos that invite children to write in a very non-threatening way. The third project is Bookmaker Like You. It highlights up-and-coming writers and illustrators, and those working behind the scenes such as agents and editors, to give every child the experience I had when I saw Jean “Binta” Breeze at my school – that feeling of ‘that could be me’.