Congratulations to Nicola Davies who has been appointed fourth Children’s Laureate Wales. She takes over from poet, Alex Wharton.

Photos Clippa 2023 taken on 10th July 2023 at the National Theatre

The announcement was made on 10 September 2025 during an event at Maesteg Library. Nicola Davies will be in the role until August 2027, working to share the power of poetry: making it accessible, fun, and relevant to children and young people across Wales.

Speaking about her hopes for the Laureateship, Davies said, ‘I want all children in Wales to experience the pleasure of reading, the superpower of writing, and to find their own voices as creative change-makers and advocates for a fairer, and more sustainable future.’

Penny Thomas, Nicola’s publisher at Firefly Press said, ‘We are thrilled that Nicola is to be the next Children’s Laureate Wales. Nicola’s drive and enthusiasm for the power of stories to transform lives and drive change for a fairer world and resilient natural environment is second to none and we will support her work in any way we can.’

Nicola Davies began her career as a biologist and studied geese, bats and whales in the wild. She worked as a presenter for the BBC Natural History Unit on programmes like The Really Wild Show, before becoming an author. She has written more than 90 books for children and young people, including poetry, picture books and novels. Her work has been published in more than 12 different languages and won awards in Wales, the UK, Europe and the US. In addition to many books about the natural world Nicola has written about disability, grief, human migration and children’s rights. Her recent YA novels The Song that Sings Us and Skrimsli, both published by Firefly Press, have both been nominated for the Yoto Carniege Award for Writing in their respective years of publication. Skrimsli won the Children and Young People’s category of the Wales Book of the Year in 2024, and her poetry collection Choose Love (Graffeg) was shortlisted for the Carnegie Award for Writing 2024 and for the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award).