The Society of Authors (SoA) has announced that The Girl Who Became a Tree author, Joseph Coelho OBE, will deliver the keynote speech at this year’s SoA Awards ceremony, which returns to Southwark Cathedral on 18 June.

Joseph will present the UK’s largest literary prizegiving event, where the winners of 11 prizes will be celebrated. A prize fund of over £170,000 will be awarded for works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and illustration.

Speaking about the awards, Joseph said: ‘The SoA is a vital organisation representing authors and their needs. I am delighted to be given the keynote at this year’s SoA Awards.’

They will be joined by our esteemed panel of judges, among whom are several past SoA Award winners,  to celebrate authors at all stages of their literary careers.

Joseph Coelho O.B.E. FRSL is a multi-award-winning children’s author and playwright. His YA ‘Story told in poems’ The Girl Who Became a Tree was shortlisted for The 2021 Carnegie Medal and received a special mention from the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2021. He has written plays for Little Angel Theatre, Tutti Frutti Productions, Polka Theatre and The Unicorn Theatre amongst others. He is two-time winner of the Indie Book Awards (2019 & 2022) with Picture Books If All the World Were… and My Beautiful Voice respectively (illustrated by Allison Colpoys). His Poetry Collection Werewolf Club Rules (Illustrated by John O’leary) won the 2015 CLIPPA Poetry Award. His plays for adults have received a special commendation from the Verity Bargate Award and been longlisted for the Bruntwood Playwriting Competition. He won the 2024 Carnegie Medal for writing with The Boy Lost in the Maze (illustrated by Kate Milner) and was Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022 – 2024.  

Buy your tickets to the SoA Awards and Summer Party here | Register for the ceremony’s Livestream here