The Caterpillar

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The Caterpillar

A magazine for children (aged 7-11) featuring poetry, stories and art. Features the likes of Michael It is printed in an unpronouncable place in Wales.

The Caterpillar is the younger sibling of The Moth, an international arts and literature magazine for grown-ups. The Caterpillar features poetry, stories and art for kids between the ages of 7 and 11(ish). It appears four times a year ‒ in March, June, September and December. John Hegley chose The Caterpillar as one of his 'top ten children's poetry books' in The Guardian - and it's not even a boo

k, or a poetry book for that matter! - sharing the limelight with the likes of Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Rosen and Jacqueline Wilson. It includes some GREAT writing by the likes of Michael Morpurgo, Meshack Asare, Julie O'Callaghan, Dennis Lee (who penned 'Fraggle Rock'), Frank Cottrell Boyce, Mo O'Hara, John Hegley, Ian Whybrow, Mark Lowery, Hilda Offen and Janet Wong (she's read her poems on the Oprah Winfrey Show!). The Caterpillar Poetry Prize is a new annual prize of €1,000 for the best poem written by an adult for children. You can find details of how to enter at www.thecaterpillarprize.com. The magazine is edited by Rebecca O'Connor in her children's former playroom. A one-year subscription (€20) or a single copy (€5) can be ordered at www.thecaterpillarmagazine.com.

02/01/2026

❛ I think the air’s just full of stories... full of music and it’s full of stories, and if you’re that kind of person, you tune in and pick one up.

David Mckee, who was born in 1935.

27/12/2025

A little reminder... 🐈‍⬛️

'A Cat is NOT for Christmas' by Stewart Ennis, from Issue 23.

22/12/2025

❛ There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.

Beatrix Potter, who died in 1943.

20/12/2025

Time for tea...

on painter Jay Schmetz – whose piece first appeared in Issue 22! 🫖

15/12/2025

❛ In the village / full of sounds / winter makes / her snowy rounds.

Midway through the month already! The perfect time for this poem from the archives by Charles Ghigna...

12/12/2025

We're thrilled to be announcing this year's winners of The Moth Nature Writing Prize - as chosen by Mark Cocker!

This year's first prize goes to Nils Röper, who grew up in rural Northern Germany, near the former Iron Curtain, for his prose piece 'Lost Range'.

Röper has a Master’s Degree from New York University and a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of Oxford, and splits his time between Berlin, the family farm and smalltown Idaho while researching social policies and climate change.

‘There are more people than ever who don’t live where they were born and who might think about the things that could’ve been. “Lost Range” tries to capture a small part of that human experience.’

Cocker chose Lauren Nichola Colley’s poem ‘Crow Baby’ as his 2nd prize
winner. After her first degree in literature at Cambridge, Colley returned home to study for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham. She is currently working towards her PhD, alongside teaching, copyediting and travelling. Her first poetry collection Pe***ng Out won the Indigo Pamphlet Prize in 2021. ‘I’m thrilled that “Crow Baby” could be so fittingly memorialised,’ said Colley on her win. ‘For me, writing poetry has always revealed to me what I didn’t know mattered.’

The 3rd prize goes to William Wyld’s poem ‘Walking on the beach with Mum’. William Wyld is a poet, visual artist and carpenter from London. Raised by a couture dress designer, costume and identity are central to William's work, which tackles grief, chronic illness and the human relationship with the natural world through a variety of real and imagined voices, myth-making and humour. They were highly commended in the Forward prize for best poem: performed, the Creative Futures Awards and the Bridport Prize.

The 1st prize is €1,000 and a week at The Moth Retreat in rural Ireland, 2 nd prize is €500, and 3rd prize €250.

Mark Cocker also highly commended work by Nicola Healy, Helen Mort, Alyson Rose-Wood, Craig van Rooyen, and Mari Wells.

Read the winning work here: https://www.themothmagazine.com/a1-page.asp?ID=9311&page=56

09/12/2025

Whatever your festive holiday reading plans are, we bet they could be improved by a story like this one from Mark Stewart...

Check out our backlist for lots of short stories and poems for small hands and bright minds.

🎁 bit.ly/caterpillar30

04/12/2025

'The Caterpillar is such a unique and inspired magazine' – Coral Rumble

'Every child should own a Caterpillar' – Ian Whybrow

'The artwork is the most beautiful I have ever seen' – Rebecca Linam

Try out a back issue from just €5...

🫧 bit.ly/caterpillarbackissues

30/11/2025

Say goodbye to one month and hello to a new one with this lovely little poem by Mary Green, originally from Issue 40. 👋

25/11/2025

❛ I always want the words to do what the pictures can’t do and the pictures to do what the words can’t do. So, if you get a duplication, I try to subtract what I don’t need because I believe less is more.

Children's artist and author, Marc Brown, born in 1946.

23/11/2025

A frosty fairytale painting from The Caterpillar Archives – by Cuban-American artist Enrique Martínez Celaya and originally from Issue 25! 🌨

20/11/2025

Want to get ahead on Christmas gift shopping?

Try these brilliant and affordable gift bundles of The Caterpillar – five issues for as little as €20!

Ideal for young lovers of art and stories, choc-a-bloc as they are with the very best of both...

🎁 bit.ly/caterpillarbundles

Address

Dublin

Telephone

+353872657251

Website

https://www.thecaterpillarmagazine.com/

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