Following the publication of his debut prose work The Dust Diaries (Faber 2004), a non-fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe that won the Welsh Book of the Year award in 2005, Owen Sheers was praised for his “admirable refusal to play it safe and be pigeon-holed” A writer, actor and broadcaster who was born in Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales, Sheers creative talent continues to resist categorisation, and when it inevitably comes it is only the most commendable kind.
Selected as one of the Poetry Book Society’s 20 Next Generation Poets in 2004, the same year in which he won the Arts Council Writer’s Award, Sheers has written two collections of award winning poetry. His first, The Blue Book (Seren, 2000) was short-listed for the Welsh Book of the Year and the Forward Prize Best 1st Collection 2001 whilst his second Skirrid Hill (Seren 2005) won a Society of Authors Somerset Maugham Award.
His one man play Unicorns, based upon the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas is set to be produced this year by Old Vic, New Voices with Joseph Fiennes in the leading role. He is currently working on two plays for Radio 4 and his first novel, Resistance will be published by Faber in Summer 2007.