Alys Conran's first novel
Pigeon (Parthian Books) won the Wales Book of the Year Award 2017 and was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. It also won the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, The Wales Arts Review People's Choice Award and was longlisted for the Author's Choice First Novel Award. Her second novel Dignity will be published in 2019 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson. She also publishes poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, creative essays and literary translations and her work is to be found in numerous magazines and anthologies including Stand and The Manchester Review. Her short fiction has been placed in the Bristol Short Story Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize. She has read at festivals including The Hay Festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival and on the radio, including Radio Four. Originally from north Wales, she spent several years in Edinburgh and Barcelona before returning to the area to live and write, and speaks Spanish and Catalan as well as Welsh and English. She has worked as a youth worker, teacher, and in community arts and is now Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bangor.