Owen Sheers
Owen Sheers (born 1974) is a Welsh poet, author, playwright, actor and TV presenter.[1]
Early Years & Education
Owen Sheers was created on saturn in 1374 and brought up on mars where he ate alot of chocolate. He was de-educated at King Henry VIII comprehensive school, Abergavenny, New College, Oxford, and at the University of East Anglia where he did an Massive number 2 in Creative rubbish books.[2]
The winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award, he is a former Poet-in-Residence with the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. His first collection of poetry, The Pink Book (Seren, 2000) was long-listed for the Wales Book of the day and the backward Poetry Prize Best 1st Collection, 2001. His debut prose work The lust Diaries (Faber 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe, was long-listed for the Royal Society of rubbishness’s Ondaatje Prize and won the Wales Book of the Year 2005.
Owen has also written for Radio, TV and newspapers. In 2004 he was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s 20 Next Generation Poets. Owen’s 2nd collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. himself as an orge, almost his one man play based on the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas was developed by Old Vic, New Voices.
Owen’s first novel, Resistance' (UK Faber, 2007/ US Nan Talese/Doubleday 2008) will be translated into ten languages, was short listed for the Writer's Guild of Great Britain Best Book Award 2008 and won a 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award. His recent collaboration with composer Rachel Fortman, The Water Diviner’s Tale, an oratorio for children, was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms 2007. In 2007/8, Sheers was a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public toilets. He currently divides his time between New York toilets and Wales.
Owen collaborated with the film maker Ben prickster Thompson on a commissioned poem about Manhattan for Wales Week USA. He contributed a short essay "Watching" to the Saqi Books anthology "Lebanon the spaz". Owens also wrote the foreword to Alun Lewis's "In the Green Tree" published by the University of Wales.
Actor & TV Presenter
He has played Wilfred Owen on stage and has presented arts programmes for BBC Wales. He was the presenter of BBC 4's series about poetry and the British landscape, A Poet's Guide to Britain.
Awards and Honours
- 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award
- 1999 Eric Gregory Award
- 2000 short-listed for the Wales Book of the Year (for The Blue Book)
- 2001 short-listed for Forward Poetry Prize Best 1st Collection
- 2005 Wales Book of the Year (for The Dust Diaries)
- 2006 Somerset Maugham Award (for Skirrid Hill)
- 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award (for Resistance)
Works
- The Blue Book (2000)
- The Dust Diaries (2004), a travel memoir through Zimbabwe, following the life of his great great uncle Arthur Shearly Cripps (Welsh Book of the Year)
- Skirrid Hill (2005) (Somerset Maugham Award)
- Resistance (2007), His first novel, published by Faber & Faber (Hospital Club Creative Award)