On the 30th of September you shall be coming to the Library. What is the occasion?
I was invited by Cyril Evans to come and give a reading and talk at the library. I’ve recently published a novella, White Ravens, as part of Seren’s ‘New Stories from the Mabinogion’ series in which contemporary Welsh writers respond to the original stories of the Mabinogi. I chose to write in response to the second branch, Branwen, Daughter of Llyr. As the library holds the original manuscripts it seemed a good reason to come and talk about the process of writing White Ravens and read from the book. I’ll also be reading from and discussing my novel Resistance the film of which will begin shooting in October. I co-wrote the screenplay with the film’s director, Amit Gupta, so I hope any discussion around that process might be of interest to the film students at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Are you looking forward?
Yes, of course. I love coming to Aberystwyth. I’ve travelled a lot but for my money it still has the best sunsets in the world.
Have you been to the Library before? If so, what was the reason?
I’m ashamed to say I haven’t, so this is another reason I’m looking forward to the visit. I’m hoping there’ll be time for me to look around and maybe even see some of the collection.
Book or e-book reader?
Book, through and through. For me a book is so much more than just a medium through which to read text. For one thing it’s an escape from the screen… That said I have downloaded the complete works of Shakespeare on to my i-phone and just before writing this I was reading some of the sonnets on it while waiting for someone at a train station.
The Welsh Literature Archive Project encourages people to think about the way they keep and safeguard their work on computer, so that the nation’s heritage won’t be poorer in future. Are you a letter, e-mail or Twitter fan?
Don’t tweet – quite possibly put off by the verb more than anything else. That and more often than not it is the privacy of a thought or observation that makes it special. The private communing with the mind.
I email a lot – both for work and socially. I still receive quite a few letters and when there isn’t an email address included I do my best to reply in kind. And there are some occasions of life which I feel do demand the respect of a handwritten letter or card. The big ones – births, marriages, deaths. Love.
An Evening with Owen Sheers
30.09.10
Poet, author and film writer Owen Sheers presents an evening of readings and poetry.
Admission by ticket £10.00<