Bilston's Refugees poem gets picture book deal

Palazzo Editions is publishing a children’s picture book of Brian Bilston’s poem 'Refugees' after signing world rights from Unbound.

Bilston, dubbed the “unofficial poet laureate of Twitter”, included the poem in his 2016 anthology You Took the Last Bus Home, published by Unbound. The poem can be read forwards as well as backwards to give two opposing messages on society’s views on refugees.

Palazzo m.d. Jon Rippon said: “After seeing the poem on Facebook we approached Brian with the idea of creating a children’s picture book to bring this clever, and poignant, poem to a young generation. We were very pleased to get Brian’s consent and, via Unbound, to obtain the rights to create what we expect to be a very special illustrated book for children.”

The picture book will be illustrated by Colombian artist José Sanabria and published in April 2019.