Paul Henry, Owen Sheers & Richard Gwyn
Paul Henry is one of Wales’ leading poets. The author of six collections of verse, his work has been widely anthologized. Originally a songwriter, Henry has read at festivals across the UK and Europe. He has lectured at the University of Glamorgan and guest-edited Poetry Wales. A popular Creative Writing tutor, he currently presents the Inspired series of arts programs for BBC Radio Wales. Of Henry's latest book, Ingrid's Husband, The Times Literary Supplement said, "...the haunting music, the cherished objects, the blank landscape of beaches, 'the missed trajectories' of space and time all amount to a book which finds, like William Carlos Williams, its brightness in bits of broken glass and fragments of the marvelous."
Besides being an award winning poet, Owen Sheers' has garnered intense praise for his first novel, Resistance. The Guardian calls it a, "remarkable first novel...at once a brilliant and sometimes frightening thriller, and a mature exploration of human blur and compromise. Sheers treads his tricky path with infinite subtlety." Sheers' two collections of poetry, The Blue Book and Skirrid Hill, have won many awards including, Forward Prize Best 1st Collection 2001 and the 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. The Dust Diaries, Sheers' first nonfiction book set in Zimbabwe, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize and won the Welsh Book of the Year 2005.
Richard Gwyn was born in Pontypool, and grew up in Crickhowell, South Wales. Gwyn's poetry includes One Night in Icarus Street, Stone Dog, Flower Red, Walking on Bones and Being in Water. As Kirkus Reviews says of his work, "He lends each situation an air of mystery and offers layer upon layer of speculation, a kind of reverse archaeology, as to what will happen next . . .Gwyn truly shines in the sensuous details he imparts to each simple act." He is also the editor of an anthology of new poetry from Wales titled The Pterodactyl’s Wing: Welsh World Poetry. He has been a regular columnist for Poetry Wales, writes book reviews for The Independent. His first novel, The Colour of a Dog Running Away, set in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, has been translated into several languages. He will read from his second novel, Deep Hanging Out.