The Gospel of Us

Twice-winner of Wales Book of the Year, Owen Sheers’ poetry books 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. His first novel Resistance, was translated into 15 languages and adapted into a film. His most recent novel, I Saw a Man was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Étranger. Owen’s theatrical work includes The Two Worlds of Charlie F., winner of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, Mametz and The Passion, both for National Theatre of Wales, and Unicorns, almost, about the life of poet Keith Douglas. His arts documentaries include the BBC 4 series A Poet’s Guide to Britain, The Greatest Poem of WWI: David Jones and In Parenthesis and a BBC documentary about the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Dylan Thomas: A Poet’s Guide. His recent BAFTA nominated film-poem about the Aberfan disaster, The Green Hollow, won three BAFTA Cymru awards including for Best Writer. 
To Provide All People was his BBC film-poem written to mark the 70th anniversary of the NHS. His BBC One climate drama The Trick, was nominated for a BAFTA Cymru best film award and was part of PBS’s Earth Day scheduling for 2022. Owen’s most recent book is a work for children, Drew, Moo and Bunny, Too. 

A former NYPL Cullman fellow, Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and Artist in Residence for the Welsh Rugby Union, Owen was the recipient of the 2016 St David’s Award for Culture and the 2018 Wilfred Owen Poetry Award. He is Cennad of Wales PEN Cymru, a Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford, a patron of STAMMA and The Children’s Book Show and a co-founder of Black Mountains College, a new university focused on sustainable futures and systems change. He lives in Talgarth with his two daughters.