Heist 1: The Great Chocolate Caper

Joel McKerrow is an award-winning writer, keynote speaker, creativity specialist, children's author, educator and, having performed for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, is one of Australia’s most successful performance poets.

Joel is the artist Ambassador for the aid and development organisation TEARFUND Australia, the 2025-2026 VIC/TAS president of Professional Speakers Australia and is the co-founder/host of The Deep Place Podcast. He was the third ever Australian representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships and co-founder of community arts organisation 'The Centre for Poetics and Justice.’

Currently the Director of The School for Creative Development, Joel is extremely passionate about creative education, teaching in over fifty schools every year, as well as presenting at many of Australia’s premiere literary festivals (including the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival, where Heist: The Great Chocolate Caper was the #1 bestselling book of the entire festival). Joel has taught hundreds of thousands of students throughout the world to tap into their imagination and spill it out onto the page in both story and poetry.