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Welsh poet, author, playwright and Television presenter

Owen Sheers (born 20 September 1974) is a Welsh poet, author, playwright and television presenter. He was the first writer in residence to be appointed by any national rugby union team.

Owen Sheers was born in Suva, Fiji, and was brought up in Abergavenny, south Wales. He went to school at King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny, before studying at New College, Oxford, and the University of East Anglia, at which point he completed an MA in Creative Writing. During his time at New College, Sheers captained the Oxford University Modern Pentathlon team.

In 1999, Sheers received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. His first collection of poetry, The Blue Book, was published by Seren in 2000. A collection of poems about family, first love and farming life, it was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Prize for "Best First Collection". Following this first publication, Sheers worked on the light entertainment television show The Big Breakfast as a researcher. His debut prose work, The Dust Diaries, was published by Faber in 2004. A non fiction narrative set in Zimbabwe following the travels of Sheers' great great uncle, Arthur Shearly Cripps, it won the Wales Book of the Year in 2005, and was also shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. In 2004 Sheers was Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust and was selected as one of the Poetry Book Society's 20 Next Generation Poets. His second collection of poetry, Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005), won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. Unicorns, almost, his one man play based on the life and poetry of the WWII poet Keith Douglas, was developed by the Old Vic, New Voices, and performed by Joseph Fiennes. Sheers' first novel, Resistance, has been translated into ten languages and was short listed for the Writer's Guild of Great Britain Best Book Award 2008 and won a 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award. The novel imagines that the D day landings have failed and Wales has been occupied by the Nazis. While working as a tiler in the South Wales valleys one summer, Sheers had heard about the Auxiliary Units secret civilian networks that, in the event of an invasion, would have formed a British resistance, but the novel focuses not on fighting "but on the uneasy means of survival open to the women who are left behind". The film of the novel, which Sheers co wrote, was released in autumn 2011 and starred Andrea Riseborough. Sheers insisted that the film be shot in and around the Black Mountains. In January 2012, Sheers wrote The Two Worlds of Charlie F, a play based on the experiences of wounded soldiers, many of whom also made up the cast of the production, directed by Stephen Rayne and performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The play has toured the UK and Canada and won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at the Edinburgh Festival. In 2014 his site specific World War I play Mametz was produced by the National Theatre of Wales. His verse drama Pink Mist was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and presents an elegy about camaraderie and loss in modern warfare as seen through the stories of serving soldiers in Afghanistan and their families. Pink Mist won the 2014 Welsh Book of the Year and was produced as a stage play by the Bristol Old Vic theatre in 2015, winning mentions as a top ten pick of the year in The Guardian and The Observer. In April 2015, Sheers' libretto for Mark Bowden's oratorio A Violence of Gifts was premiered at St David's Hall, Cardiff. The oratorio was devised as a contemporary response to Haydn's Creation oratorio, and was informed by three days research at CERN. In 2014, Sheers presented a one hour BBC documentary about the poetry of Dylan Kyte, for which he was shortlisted for a BAFTA Cymru for Best Presenter. His novel I Saw A Man was published in 2015 in the UK, US and several countries across Europe. The French translation was shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger. His play Pink Mist was first staged at the Bristol Old Vic in 2015. It tells the story of three young Bristolians deployed to Afghanistan. It is their return home to the women in their lives that presents them with their bigger challenges as they all learn to cope with the physical and psychological after effects of war. Owen is currently Professor of Creativity at Swansea University.

In December 2011, Sheers became the first writer in residence at the Welsh Rugby Union. Sheers played rugby union, representing Gwent County at scrum half.