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Joseph Coelho, 2024 Carnegie Medal Winner, to Headline the 2025 Carnegies Book Town Takeover in Sedbergh

carnegies.co.uk | #Carnegies2025 | @CarnegieMedals

Wednesday 15 January 2025: The Carnegies, the UK’s longest-running and best-loved book awards for children and young people, are thrilled to announce the return of the Carnegies Book Town Takeover in Sedbergh for a second consecutive year. The event will take place on Tuesday, 18 March 2025, marking a special collaboration with Sedbergh, England’s Book Town, during Sedbergh School’s 500-year anniversary celebrations.

This year’s headline speaker is Joseph Coelho, 2024 Carnegie Medal Winner for Writing, who inspired young people in his award speech with the words: “Allow time and space for the dreams you don’t yet know you have… And libraries and librarians can be a huge help in that endeavour because books do widen our horizons. They enable us to read about our own lives but also about each other’s lives, which is so essential in bringing us all together as one global family.”

Image of Joseph Coelho and quote reading '“Allow time and space for the dreams you don’t yet know you have'

Joining Joseph will be authors and illustrators featured on the 2025 longlists and shortlists of the Carnegies awards, with the full line-up to be announced after the official longlist and shortlist announcements.

The 2025 event will focus on delivering a dynamic daytime programme with free sessions designed for primary and secondary school groups, celebrating outstanding books, reading, and storytelling. The programme is made possible through the continued partnership with the Sedbergh Book Town Literary Trust, Sedbergh School, Sedbergh Prep School, and Pen&Inc magazine.

The Carnegies Book Town Takeover is part of the wider mission of the Carnegies to promote a lifelong love of reading and celebrate excellence in children’s and young adult literature. This partnership with Sedbergh offers a unique opportunity to unite authors, illustrators, and educators with young readers in a town steeped in literary heritage.

Registration is now open for school groups to attend the Carnegies Book Town Takeover on 18th March 2025 in Sedbergh, England’s Book Town. If you have any questions, please contact carnegies@sedberghschool.org.

For those who aren’t local to Sedbergh and cannot attend this event, there are still opportunities to get involved. Sign up your group to shadow the 2025 awards and join the Carnegies for other in-person and virtual events happening throughout the year as part of the 2025 awards.

The shortlists for the 2025 Carnegies will be announced at a panel event at London Book Fair beginning at 3.15pm on Tuesday 11 March. The winners’ ceremony will be hosted live and streamed online on Thursday 19 June.

Pen&Inc magazine and the Carnegies are partnered in their mission to create a better, more inclusive world through reading for pleasure, and are both a part of CILIP, the Library and Information Association. The Carnegies are supported by The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and Scholastic as the official book supplier.

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For further information on the Carnegies 2025 please visit: www.carnegies.co.uk    

The Carnegies logo can be downloaded here.

#Carnegies2025 | @CarnegieMedals on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky and TikTok

For media and interview requests, please contact:
Katie Cregg at ed public relations on
katie@edpr.co.uk  
020 7732 4796

NOTES TO EDITORS:

KEY DATES

About The Carnegies

About Sedbergh Book Town

About Sedbergh School

About Pen&Inc. Magazine

About CILIP, the library and information association

About Joseph Coelho

About Scholastic

About ALCS