I’ve been doing poetry workshops in schools since 2013, and have worked with pupils both inside and outside of formal education since then across a range of ages. Working with kids is a real buzz, and trying to ignite their love for poetry reminds me why I choose to base my life around it.
In 2017, I was asked to be an ambassador for Eureka! The National Children’s Museum, which is a huge honour (particularly as somebody who regularly visited as a kid), and the poem that I wrote for Eureka!’s 25th birthday celebration led to me being approached by Bloomsbury Books.
Fast forward to 2019, and I’m about to see my debut collection of kids’ poetry published on the Bloomsbury Education imprint. ‘A Hurricane in my Head’ is targeted at the 11-13 age group. It’s published on 11 July and is available to pre-order here.
As somebody that was 8-years-old when the first Harry Potter novel took the world by storm, I fell in love with reading through JK Rowling’s world, and so to have my own work under the same publishers is mind-blowing.
With surprising honesty and words that resonate long after reading, ‘A Hurricane in my Head’ tackles the themes of friendship, bullying, technology and the life of a modern teenager. These poems say the things we can’t always put into words; they may make you laugh, they may make you cry, but they will most definitely make you reminisce, escape, discover…
Bloomsbury Education
This is a truly stunning collection from Matt Abbott, nationally acclaimed writer and performer, with poems that will make you want to become a poet and put your own words to paper – much to the perplexity of any careers adviser!
I’ll be speaking a lot more about the collection between now and publication date, including the inspiration behind the poems and how I took myself from sending the final version of ‘Two Little Ducks’ off to print immediately before I started work on ‘AHIMH’.
There’ll also be festival dates and readings, and I’ll be more than happy to visit as many schools as possible to lead workshops in response to the poems (see more on my educational work here). Prime age groups would be Year 5 through to Year 8. So, feel free to contact me if you’re interested in a visit, and watch the first poem that I wrote for the collection below…
Matt Abbott Poet 