Oliver Sykes is an award-winning author, writer/performer, poet and producer.
His first book, Alfie’s First Fight, was published in 2022 (Stories Of Care & Manchester Metropolitan University) and won ‘Best Indie-Published Young Illustrated Reader’ at the 2023 Children’s Literature Festivals Book Awards, as well as receiving endorsements from Alex Wheatle MBE and Ricky Hatton MBE.
In the same year, Oliver adapted Alfie’s First Fight into a one-man stage show of the same name for children aged 5+, and toured the show to 42 venues across the UK, including schools, libraries, theatres and boxing clubs.
In 2023, Oliver added Fishing For Rainbows (Stories Of Care & Manchester Metropolitan University) to his list of books, heralded by Carnegie-award-winning author, Anthony McGowan, as ‘Simply brilliant!’ and longlisted for the 2024 Children’s Literature Festivals Book Awards.
Throughout 2024, Oliver will tour his one-man stage adaptation of Fishing For Rainbows, supported by Big Imaginations, Z-Arts, Touchstones and Arts Council England.
Oliver’s debut poetry collection, We Are Family: Six Kids and a Super-Dad (Otter-Barry Books) will be published on 9 May 2024 and is currently available for pre-order here.
Oliver’s sequel to Alfie’s First Fight, titled Alfie and the Thief is also currently in production and scheduled to be published in autumn 2024.
Oliver has also co-founded – along with his partner and primary school teacher, Gwen Jones – a new non-profit organisation called Your Story. The organisation is based in their hometown of Denbigh where they collaborate with and for communities to discover and creatively share stories.
“A self-starter, a maverick and a creative force to be reckoned with.”
SOPHIE WILLAN, WRITER & STAR OF BBC2 ALMA’S NOT NORMAL