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Poetry Live for Haiti The Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Poetry Live have invited 20 of our leading poets to perform at Westminster Central Hall on Saturday January 30th 2010 at 2.30pm in a fundraising event for the people of Haiti. Poets include Carol Ann Duffy, Roger McGough, Andrew Motion, John Agard, Dannie Abse, Brian Patten, Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Grace Nichols, Elaine Feinstein, Daljit Nagra, Ian Duhig, Lachlan Mackinnon, Owen Sheers, Glyn Maxwell, Jo Shapcott, Robin Robertson, Colette Bryce, Maura Dooley and Robert Minhinnick, along with the musicians John Sampson and Andy Roberts. Tickets are £10. Telephone 01497 822629 or website below. Tickets will be available at the door on the day for cash only.  www.poetryliveforhaiti.org
All proceeds will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal. This event has been made possible thanks to the huge generosity of the Guardian Hay Festival, Westminster Central Hall and Eclipse Sound and Light. .............................. National Theatre of Wales The newly formed National Theatre of Wales has recently commissioned Owen to work with actor Michael Sheen to create a new a piece of theatre for Port Talbot. The production, which will be set in various locations in the town, will be based upon the Passion Plays and will be performed in April 2011. More information can be found at: www.nationaltheatrewales.org
.............................. A Poet’s Guide to Britain The accompanying anthology to ‘A Poet’s Guide to Britain’, selected and with an introduction by Owen, is published in October by Penguin. The series is currently being repeated on BBC 4 at 7.30pm on Thursdays. The poems featured in the series were: ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’ by William Wordsworth – May 4th ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Sylvia Plath – May 11th ‘Hamnavoe’ by George Mackay Brown – May 18th ‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold – May 25th ‘Poem from Llanybri’ by Lynette Roberts – June 1st ‘Woods’ by Louis MacNeice – June 8th Reviews:  FT.com
The Times
The Scotsman
www.ft.com
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture
.............................. ‘White Ravens’ Owen’s novella, ‘White Ravens’, a contemporary response to the Mabinogion myth ‘Branwen Daughter of Llyr’ is published by Seren in November Reviews: www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books
.............................. Film rights The film rights for Owen’s novel ‘Resistance’ have been optioned by Richard Holmes of Big Rich films. Link to Variety article with details below: www.variety.com
Big Rich Films: www.bigrichfilms.com
.............................. Owen's debut novel, Resistance is published in the UK by Faber & Faber, in the U.S. it is published by Nan A. Talese. Resistance won the 2008 Hospital Club Creative Award for Literature and was short-listed for the Writer’s Guild Best Book Award 2008. The US paperback of Resistance is now available. In an imagined alternative 1944, after the fall of Russia and the failed D-Day landings, half of Britain is occupied...Young farmer's wife Sarah Lewis wakes to find her husband has disappeared, along with all of the men from her remote Welsh village. A German patrol arrives in the valley, the purpose of their mission a mystery. Sarah begins a faltering acquaintance with the patrol's commanding officer, Albrecht, and it is to her that he reveals the purpose of his mission - to claim an extraordinary medieval art treasure that lies hidden in the valley. But as the pressure of the war beyond presses in on this isolated community, this fragile state of harmony is increasingly threatened. “Owen Sheers' Resistance is an astonishing and compelling study of human nature against the backdrop of an occupied village. Sheers plumbs the depths of love, cowardice, bravery, and the devastating effects of blind patriotism, and in doing so exposes the best and worst of humanity in unexpected and haunting ways.” - Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants Owen's conversation with Jan Morris at the New York Public Library was filmed by New York's Channel Thirteen and can be viewed at: www.thirteen.org
The BBC Audio version of Resistance read by Richard Coyle can be downloaded from:
www.audible.co.uk
More....
.............................. Skirrid Hill Owen's second poetry collection Skirrid Hill is published by Seren www.seren-books.com. Skirrid Hill has recently been made a set text on the WJEC and AQA A level syllabuses. ‘A gorgeously elegiac volume…beguiling and brilliant’ - Sarah Crown, The Guardian More....
.............................. The Dust Diaries. The paperback of The Dust Diaries is now available with more photographs and a new afterword bringing the story up to date. Winner of Welsh Book of the Year 2005. Shortlisted for 2005 Royal Society of Literature Ondaadtje Prize. More....
.............................. Shearly Cripps Children's Home. A Justgiving website has been set up to raise money for the Shearly Cripps Children's Home in Zimbabwe, which was founded in memory of Arthur Shearly Cripps, the subject of Owen's book The Dust Diaries. Donations can be made by following this link: www.justgiving.com/shearlycrippsorphanage
'I first met the children and staff of the Shearly Cripps Children’s Home when I was researching Arthur’s life for my book The Dust Diaries. In this book I was tracing, and trying to capture, some of the generosity of spirit, toughness and determined persistence that characterised Arthur’s life as one of the first European social activists in Southern Rhodesia . I discovered fragments of Arthur’s character and beliefs throughout my travels in Zimbabwe – in people who had known him, worked with him, been helped by him, or even just read his work or about him. In the Children’s Home, however, I found the very embodiment of everything that Arthur valued. Giving shelter, care and above all hope to those who thought they had lost those qualities from their lives. The children were, and are, so impressive. Hard working, clever, funny and grateful for anything that improves their lot. Obviously in recent years that lot has got much worse in the face of Zimbabwe ’s steady decline. The staff of the Home are trying their very hardest to keep the home going despite these worsening conditions, and, amazingly, they are succeeding where many others are failing. It is so important the Home is helped through this most difficult of times in Zimbabwe .. Not just for the Children under its care now, but for the thousands of children not yet born who will benefit from its work in the future.’ - Owen Sheers .............................. For any literary enquiries, including readings and events, please contact: Zoë Waldie at Rogers, Coleridge and White: zoew@rcwlitagency.co.uk, Tel: 0207 792 3485 Readings
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| A Poet's Guide to Britain |
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| Buy A Poet's Guide to Britain
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| White Ravens |
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| Buy White Ravens
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| Resistance |
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| Buy paperback (UK)
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| Buy (US version)
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| Skirrid Hill |
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| ‘A moving, striking, illuminating collection, vital and mysterious. Just as it should be.’ Niall Griffiths |
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| The Dust Diaries |
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| 'A unique achievement written with integrity and great imaginative power'
Michael Holroyd, best books of 2004, The New Statesman |
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