Nicola Davies and Siôn Tomos Owen appointed Children’s Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru

Nicola Davies and Siôn Tomos Owen have been appointed Children’s Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru, respectively.

They will embark on a journey to foster creativity and ignite a love of reading among children. They follow in the footsteps of Alex Wharton and Nia Morais, who were appointed in 2023, with laureateship awarded every two years. The aim is to expand children and young people’s access to literature by running workshops, writing commissioned poems, delivering projects with groups of children and creating online resources.

The two schemes are independent of each other but both aim to contribute towards raising a healthier, more creative and more diverse generation of readers and writers across Wales.

Davies began her career as a biologist studying geese, bats and whales. Before becoming an author, she worked as a presenter for the BBC Natural History Unit on programmes including The Really Wild Show. She has written more than 90 books for children and young people. Her recent YA novels, The Song That Sings Us (Firefly Press) and Skrimsli (Firefly Press), have both been nominated for the Yoto Carniege Medal for Writing. Skrimsli won the Children and Young People’s category of the Wales Book of the Year Awards in 2024, and her poetry collection Choose Love (Graffeg) was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024.

"I want all children in Wales to experience the pleasure of reading, the superpower of writing, and to find their own voices as creative change-makers and advocates for a fairer, and more sustainable future," Davies said.

Meanwhile, Owen is a bilingual writer, poet, artist and presenter from Treorchy in Rhondda Fawr, and works as a creative freelance artist. His first collection of poetry, Pethau Sy’n Digwydd (Barddas), was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year 2025, and his most recent publication is a novel for children, Gerwyn Gwrthod a’r Llyfr Does Neb yn Cael ei Darllen (Atebol). He has written and illustrated several books for children and Welsh learners, and his poetry and stories are on the new curriculum for GCSE Welsh and Welsh as a second language.

"As Bardd Plant Cymru, I want to ease out the creativity that every child has within them, to create poems, stories or illustrations – the funny and the profound – and to use these to foster the love of reading, which grabbed me when I was the same age," Owen said.

The writers were appointed by panels of experts in the fields of literature, publishing and education, led by Literature Wales.

Leusa Llewelyn, artistic director of Literature Wales, said: "Firstly, we would like to thank Nia Morais and Alex Wharton for their hard work over the past two years. From running workshops in HMP Parc, to offering virtual workshops for groups of young people from Wales and Palestine, to walking hundreds of miles from school to school in Anglesey and Powys, they have both made heroic strides towards their goal of inspiring children and young people to foster a love of words and poetry."

Llewelyn added: "We extend a very warm welcome to their successors Siôn Tomos Owen and Nicola Davies. The batons are being passed to them as ambassadors for creativity and advocates for reading and writing. We can’t wait to work with them to realise their ambitious plans and projects."