New Children’s Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru announced for 2025–27

Literature Wales has announced the new Children’s Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru, Nicola Davies and Siôn Tomos Owen, who will serve in their new roles from 2025 to 2027.

The announcement was made at Maesteg Library in Bridgend on Wednesday 10 September, with Nicola and Siôn taking over the posts from Alex Wharton and Nia Morais, who were appointed in 2023.

Bardd Plant Cymru and Children’s Laureate Wales are two national ambassadorial roles that aim to inspire the children of Wales through literature.

The wider aims of the projects are to expand children and young people’s access to literature, contributing to improved wellbeing, increasing enjoyment of literature and empowering children and young people through creativity.

Creative change-makers

On the morning of the announcement, local children from Ysgol Cynwyd Sant, Ysgol Gynradd Caerau and the Maesteg Writing Squad made their way to the library to be amongst the first to discover the news.

They were joined by invited guests from the literature, publishing and education sectors, and all were treated to conversations and performances by the new post-holders as well as the outgoing laureates, Alex and Nia, who shared words of wisdom with their successors.

Literature Wales noted that Nicola and Siôn are “about to embark on a journey to foster creativity, reignite a love of reading, and empower children to become creative change-makers.”

Throughout the coming two years, the authors will keep busy by running workshops in various locations including schools, libraries, hubs, centres, and festivals; writing commissioned poems to mark special occasions; delivering projects with groups of children and young people throughout Wales; creating online resources; and championing the voices of Wales’ children and young people nationally and internationally.

Children’s Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru are independent of each other but are sister schemes that contribute towards raising a healthier, more creative and more diverse generation of readers and writers across Wales.

Nicola

Nicola Davies began her career as a biologist and studied geese, bats and whales in the wild. She worked as a presenter for the BBC Natural History Unit on programmes like The Really Wild Show, before becoming an author. She has written more than 90 books for children and young people, including poetry, picture books and novels.

Her work has been published in more than 12 different languages and won awards in Wales, the UK, Europe and the US. In addition to many books about the natural world Nicola has written about disability, grief, human migration and children’s rights.

Her recent YA novels The Song that Sings Us and Skrimsli, both published by Firefly Press, have both been nominated for the Yoto Carniege Award for Writing in their respective years of publication. Skrimsli won the Children and Young People’s category of the Wales Book of the Year in 2024, and her poetry collection Choose Love (Graffeg) was shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Award for Writing 2024.

Speaking about her hopes for her time as Children’s Laureate Wales, Nicola said: “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.”

Siôn

Siôn Tomos Owen is a bilingual writer, poet, artist and presenter from Treorci in Rhondda Fawr. He works as a creative freelance artist – drawing, painting murals and running creative workshops. He was one of the presenters of the television programmes Cynefin and Pobol y Rhondda, and was a comedy contributor to Y Tŷ Rygbi, Jonathan and Academi Gomedi.

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 2025).

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.

Siôn said the following about his tenure: “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.”

‘Heroic strides’

Bardd Plant Cymru was established in the year 2000, and since then 18 poets have undertaken the role. The Children’s Laureate Wales scheme was established in 2019, and Nicola Davies will be the fourth post-holder.

Both posts are appointed by panels of experts in the fields of literature, publishing and education, led by Literature Wales. The Bardd Plant Cymru scheme is supported by several partners: Welsh Government, S4C, Welsh Book Council and Urdd Gobaith Cymru. Both roles are awarded every two years to inspirational writers who are passionate about ensuring that more children and young people discover the joy and power of literature.

Leusa Llewelyn, Artistic Director of Literature Wales, said: “Firstly, Literature Wales would like to thank Nia Morais and Alex Wharton for their hard work over the last 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.

“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. We are privileged to welcome them both to these roles, and we wish them the best of luck on the great adventure that is about to begin.”

Llenyddiaeth Cymru | Literature Wales is a registered charity (no. 1146560), dedicated to supporting writers of all ages. For more information about their work, visit their site here.