Exceptional times call for exceptional writers. Award-winning poet, novelist and playwright Owen Sheers (‘a prodigiously talented writer’ – New York Times) reveals his selection of ten incredible, socially engaged writers who write to reflect on and hopefully change our times. Owen will be joined on stage by three of these writers as he explores what makes their work so vital.

Presented by the National Centre for Writing and British Council as part of the International Literature Showcase, a nationwide project to showcase the diversity of writers working in the UK to an international audience. Owen joins five other writers – including Elif Shafak, Val McDermid and Jackie Kay – in a call to worldwide literature festivals, publishers and academics to broaden the scope of authors considered for literary events, translation and contemporary British literature courses.

Join the conversation #LitShowcase @WritersCentre @LitBritish

Presented by the National Centre for Writing and British Council as part of the International Literature Showcase. With support from Arts Council England and Creative Scotland.

About Owen Sheers

Owen Sheers is a poet, novelist and playwright. Twice-winner of the Wales Book of the Year, his books of poetry include Skirrid Hill, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award, the BAFTA-nominated The Green Hollow, and the verse drama Pink Mist, winner of the Hay Festival Poetry Medal. In 2018 he was awarded the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award. Sheers’ theatrical work includes The Two Worlds of Charlie F., winner of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, Mametz, and National Theatre Wales’s seventy-two hour The Passion. Chair of Wales PEN Cymru and Professor in Creativity at Swansea University, he lives in the Black Mountains of Wales with his wife and two daughters. Website

About the International Literature Showcase

The International Literature Showcase is a partnership between the National Centre for Writing and British Council. It aims to showcase amazing writers based in the UK to programmers, publishers and teachers of literature in English around the world. To do so, we have invited six leading writers to each curate a showcase of themed writing coming out of the UK today.