Owen Sheers

Owen Sheers is a poet, author, playwright and presenter. His books of poetry include Skirrid Hill, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award, and the verse drama Pink Mist, chosen as a Guardian top ten play of the year and winner of the Hay Festival Poetry Medal and Wales Book of the Year. His first novel Resistance, has been translated into 15 languages and was adapted into a film. His most recent novel, I Saw a Man was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger and is currently being adapted as a TV drama. Owen’s theatrical work includes The Two Worlds of Charlie F., winner of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, Mametz and National Theatre Wales’s 72 hour The Passion, directed and starring Michael Sheen. Owen’s arts documentaries include the BBC 4 series A Poet’s Guide to Britain and The Greatest Poem of WWI: David Jones and In Parenthesis, winner of the Celtic Media best arts documentary. His recent BAFTA and Grierson nominated film-poem to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, The Green Hollow, won three BAFTA Cymru awards, including best writer and will be published by Faber in April 2018. A former NYPL Cullman fellow and artist in residence for the Welsh Rugby Union, Owen was the recipient of the 2016 St David’s Award for Culture. He is currently chair of Wales PEN Cymru and Professor in Creativity at Swansea University. He lives in the Black Mountains in Wales with his wife and two daughters.