Owen Sheers in conversation with Andrés Neuman
On 22 September 2016 the Welsh writer Owen Sheers talked about his work in a conversation with Andrés Neuman. This was the first in our season of readings, talks and literary encounters titled Mandelstam’s Sofa, coinciding with the exhibition Osip Mandelstam: Word and Fate, organised by Granada and Heidelberg UNESCO Cities of Literature, in partnership with the Moscow State Literature Museum and open to the public at the el Centro Federico García Lorca between 9 September and 6 November.
Owen Sheers (b. 1974), a poet, novelist, playwright and teacher of creative writing at the la University of Swansea, is one of the leading British writers of his generation. His numerous awards include the Somerset Maugham Prize for his poetry collection Skirrid Hill (2005), the Hay Festival medal for poetry, and the award for the Welsh book of the year, which he has won twice: for his non-fiction work The Dusta Diaries (2004) and for his drama in verse Pink Mist (2013), which was broadcast by BBC Radio 4. His plays include Mametz and The Two Worlds of Charlie F., which won the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award. His first novel, Resistance (published in Spanish translation, as Resistencia, by Alfaguara in 2008), has been translated into ten languages and also filmed. His second novel, I Saw a Man (Reservoir Books, 2015), was shortlisted for the Femina prize in France. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in the Black Mountains of Wales. In Spain, his most recent poetry collection has been published by Pre-Textos as El hombre sombra, translated by Andrés Neuman.
Andrés Neuman was born in 1977 and initially raised in Buenos Aires. His novels include Bariloche (shortlisted for the Herralde Prize), La vida en las ventanas (shortlisted for the Primavera Prize), Una vez Argentina and El viajero del siglo (Alfaguara Prize). He has also published a book of aphorisms, El equilibrista, and the poetry collections Métodos de la noche, El jugador de billar, El tobogán (Hiperión prize), La canción del antílope and Mística abajo. He has also published collections of haikus, Gotas negras and Sonetos del extraño. He has published the short-story collections El que espera, El último minuto and Alumbramiento, and has worked extnesively on studying and teaching the art of short fiction. Andrés Neuman is without doubt, as all the cirtics agree, one of the most brilliant writers in Spanish of his generation.
