Leave the Trees, Please - Highly Commended, 2025 Wainwright Prize

Dr Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. He began performing poetry in his early teenage years, and left school aged 13. Benjamin Zephaniah published his first book, Pen Rhythm, at the age of 22 and over the next four decades, he wrote 13 poetry collections, six novels, five children's books and seven plays. His first book of poetry for children, Talking Turkeys, went to the top of the children's book list and stayed there for months. He has sixteen honorary doctorates and the Eailing Hospital in west London has named a wing after him in recognition of his work. Benjamin was passionate about issues that were both global and local, and his work focused on themes such as human rights and protecting the environment. He was widely considered to be among the first poets to address the climate crisis.Melissa Castrillón is an English and Colombian illustrator based in the southeast of England. She spends a large chunk of her days illustrating and writing picture books for children as well illustrating and designing book covers for readers of all ages. She has illustrated more than ten picture books, written three and they have been translated into more than 20 languages around the world. Melissa is motivated by punchy colour combos, inventive compositions, ingenious page design and unusual patterns. And she probably spends too much time daydreaming about all of these things and how she can apply them to new projects. In 2019 she was awarded the gold medal by the Society of Illustrators in New York for her wordless book 'The Balcony'. That same year she was asked to re-imagine the covers for Philip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS series. In between book projects Melissa spends time designing screen prints & Riso prints.