About Laura Mucha

Before she became a writer, Laura studied psychology and philosophy and worked as a lawyer. She also found time to study trapeze, work as a face painter and swim in Antarctica! Finding such joy in the world, and people, informs her writing – from poems for key workers to a very popular book she wrote on love. This involved interviewing hundreds of people, and after reading the book one newspaper described her as ‘a fantastic nosy parker’. Her poems for children have won several prizes, and she does lots of important work for children besides write, with organisations like UNICEF and the National Literacy Trust. Laura lives in London and continues to write books for both adults and children. Her poems for children have been featured around the world on radio, TV, public transport and in medical centres, rest homes, hospices, and prisons.

Laura makes language fizz and pop, from imitating birdsong to using rhyme and repetition to get our attention, helping us to remember the images, experiences, and stories she tells. She also likes to play with how poems look, spelling words out vertically (an acrostic) and using patterns of words and letters. The way Laura reads her poems brings them to life for us, for example, in ‘Words That Make Me Smile’, you can hear the smile in the poem, and in ‘The Land of Blue’ we can feel the landscape and emotions it brings with it.

 

These recordings were made available to the Poetry Archive by Laura between August and November 2020. Photograph by David Yeo.

Featured in the Archive

Gallery

Selected Bibliography

Awards

2016 Caterpillar Poetry Prize - Poem: Dear Ugly Sisters

2019 YorkMix Poems for Children - Poem: Rapunzel

2021 North Somerset Teachers' Book Award

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