Oliver Sykes
MBE
Co-Director
OLIVER SYKES is an award-winning author, poet, writer/performer and producer. He is also one of six kids and was brought up on a council estate in Derbyshire by his single parent dad. His family lived on the breadline, receiving clothing donations from local charities and free school meals.
His latest children’s books include Saving Anwen (Collins’ Big Cat Read On series) and Diesel and Me (Collins’ Big Cat for Little Wandle Fluency series), which will be published in April 2025.
His first poetry collection, We Are Family: Six Kids and a Super-Dad (Otter-Barry Books) has been hailed ‘fantastic’ by Schools Reading List’, ‘Excellent’ by BookTrust and has been endorsed by top-authors including Phil Earle and Rashmi Sirdeshpande.
His debut children’s novella, Alfie’s First Fight, won Best Illustrated Young Reader at the 2023 Children’s Literature Festivals’ Book Awards, and Alex Wheatle MBE described it as “Compelling!”.
When he isn’t writing, Oliver can usually be found performing his stories and facilitating creative writing workshops at theatres, libraries, schools, colleges and universities across the UK and beyond.
Oliver is also a founding member of Stories Of Care, an award-winning organisation that worked with exceptional new writers from diverse backgrounds.
Other books that Oliver has either written or contributed to include Fishing For Rainbows, Alfie and the Thief, Tales of the Weird, the Wild and the Wonderful and Tales of the Bold, the Brave and the Beautiful.
