The Writers of Wales Database

SHEERS, OWEN

Email: owensheers@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.owensheers.co.uk/

Poet and short story writer. Born in Fiji, Owen was brought up in Abergavenny. Educated at New College, Oxford and the University of East Anglia (Creative Writing MA), his first collection of poetry was published in 2000. Owen was Assistant Producer at Planet 24 Productions. His poems have been broadcast by the BBC and published in Poetry Wales, Poetry Ireland, This is and First Pressings (Faber and Faber). Owen’s short stories have been published in This is and Vogue, Neonlight 2, Time Out and New Writing (Quartet Books).

Owen was named by The Independent on Sunday as one of Britain’s Top Thirty Young Writers and was picked out by poet laureate Andrew Motion as "poetry’s great hope". The Dust Diaries (Faber, 2004), a montage of fiction, biography and travelogue, won the Wales Book of the Year 2005. His collection of poems, Skirrid Hill, was on the Wales Book of the Year 2006 Long List and won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2006. In August 2007 Owen dramatised and interpreted Alun Lewis’ lives and letters in a BBC Radio 4 production directed by Kate MaCall in a play called If I Should Go Away.

His first novel, Resistance was published by Faber in 2007 and a feature film adaptation was released in UK cinemas in 2011. His latest collection of poetry entitled Unicorns, Almost is due for publication by Faber. Owen also presented the six-part series, 'A Poet's Guide to Britain', aired on BBC Four in 2009. The series considered six poems from six different places in Britain, exploring their meaning, context, influence and legacy. The book accompanying the series was published by Penguin in autumn 2009. Owen has also recently written the first in the new series from Seren which will re-work tales from the Mabinogion. Entitled White Ravens (Seren, 2010), the book re-considers the story of Branwen, daughter of Llŷr. In 2011, Owen wrote the script and novelisation of The Passion for National Theatre Wales and WildWorks.

Reviews:
With respect to White Ravens (Seren, 2009)

“…hauntingly imaginative…”
Dannie Abse


Selected Publications:
The Blue Book (Seren, 2000)
The Dust Diaries (Faber, 2004)
Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005)
Resistance (Faber, 2007)
White Ravens (Seren, 2009)
A Poet's Guide to Britain (Penguin, 2009)
Unicorns, Almost (Faber, 2010)

Contributed to:
Are you talking to me? (contributor) (Pont Books Anthology, 1994)
Poems of Love and Longing (contributor) (Pont, 2008)




Resistance (Faber, 2007)

A novel set in an imagined 1944 in which Russia fell and the D-day landings were unsuccessful. Half of Britain is occupied. A young farmer’s wife Sarah Lewis wakes to find her husband has disappeared along with all men in the valley. A mysterious German patrol arrives in the area, and Sarah begins a faltering acquaintance with one of the officers, who reveals their mission.

To purchase a copy of this title from gwales.com, please click on its front cover

The portrait of Owen featured here is by painter Lorraine Bewsey. It forms part of a twenty–piece collection entitled Portraits of Welsh Writers. Lorraine can be contacted at lorraine@lorrainesartstudio.co.uk  
 

Eligible Writers on Tour subjects offered:

1. Readings from/discussion of own poetry or short fiction
2. Creative writing workshops and close reading groups in poetry and short story writing

AGE RANGE: Older Secondary School, Undergraduates and Adults.