Children’s Laureate (2022-2024), Joseph Coelho, will visit Milford Haven Library tomorrow. Monday, September 11, as part of his nationwide ‘Library Marathon’ mission.

The poet’s jampacked nine-day tour will see the UK Children’s Laureate participate in a series of school and library visits organised by BookTrust and Literature Wales.

The award-winning performance poet, playwright, and children’s author is on an epic cross-country journey to join a library in every local authority in the UK – more than 200 libraries in total – with the aim of encouraging people, young and old, to join their local library.

Coelho is championing local libraries and the vital role they play within the community and inspiring a love of reading in young people.

“I am thrilled to bring my Library Marathon tour to Wales,” he said. “I look forward to visiting 22 libraries across this beautiful country.

“Libraries have been a vital part of my life: from living on estates where I had a library next door, to my first Saturday job, to working at the British Library whilst studying at UCL, to touring theatre shows designed to be performed in libraries.

“I’m immensely grateful to libraries and the services they provide, so I want to use my platform as the Waterstones Children’s Laureate to champion these essential launchpads of learning.

“I want to hug every library, these miraculous institutions where new horizons line the shelves, where minds go to grow.”

During his visit to Milford Haven Library Joseph will register for a library card, borrow a book, as well as reading to and performing for children.

Joseph is acclaimed for his work including the Luna Loves picture books, middle grade series Fairy Tales Gone Bad, YA verse novel The Girl Who Became a Tree, as well as poetry collections for all ages including Overheard in a Tower Block and Poems Aloud The Library Marathon is one of his three major initiatives; the other campaigns include the Poetry Prompts weekly online series, which celebrates the power of poetry in all its forms, and Bookmaker Like You, which aims to showcase a diversity of new talent within the book industry so that every child can see themselves as a bookmaker.