Matt Goodfellow

Matt Goodfellow is a poet from Manchester. Before embarking on his poetry career, Matt spent over 10 years as a Year 6 primary school teacher. Now a multi award winning full-time poet, Matt spends his time writing and touring the UK and beyond – visiting schools, libraries and festivals to deliver high-energy, inspirational poetry performances and workshops. He works with organisations including National Poetry Day, the Forward Arts Foundation, the Premier League, the National Literacy Trust, Book Trust and CLPE. His debut novel, told in verse, The Final Year, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, written for middle-grade readers won the CLiPPA Award for Children’s Poetry 2024 and the Children’s Book Award for Older Readers 2024 (Federation of Children’s Book Groups) amongst many others. The follow-up to The Final Year, The First Year, is published in April 2025.

He is also the author of Caterpillar Cake, illustrated by Krina Patel-Sage and shortlisted for the CLiPPA award in 2022, Shu-Lin’s Grandpa, illustrated by Yu Rong and shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2022 and a contributor to CLiPPA-shortlisted poetry collection Being Me: Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings, all published by Otter-Barry Books. He has written two poetry collections for older readers, both published by Bloomsbury: Let’s Chase Stars Together, shortlisted for the CLiPPA award 2023, and Tomorrow We Begin, published in 2024. Matt lives in Stockport.

Read Matt's article on 'Poetry as Rebel Writing'