UEA alumnus Owen Sheers has been shortlisted for the 2014 Wales Book of the Year Award. ‘Pink Mist’, published by Faber & Faber, is one of three titles in contention in the English-language Roland Mathias Poetry Award category, which will be announced on 10th July. Each category winner will receive a prize of £2,000, and the two main winners in Welsh and English will receive an additional £6,000. Owen (pictured) graduated from the UEA MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) in 1998 and published his first collection of poetry, ‘The Blue Book’, in 2000. His first work of non-fiction, ‘The Dust Diaries’, was the Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year in 2005, while his second collection of poetry, ‘Skirrid Hill’, won the 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. He is additionally the author of ‘Calon: A Journey to the Heart of Welsh Rugby’, published last year, the novel ‘Resistance’ (2007), and numerous titles for radio, stage and screen, including ‘The Two Worlds of Charlie F’, which was funded by the British Legion and was the subject of a BBC 1 ‘Imagine’ documentary. It won the Edinburgh Festival Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award in 2012. ‘Pink Mist’, a verse drama, was the winner last year of the Hay Medal for Poetry.