KOORSOO with Siôn Tomos Owen

Siôn Tomos Owen is a writer, poet, artist and bilingual presenter from Treorchy, Rhondda Fawr. He’s had over 250 jobs from his first as a Siôn the Shopper as a ten year old to his current role as Bardd Plant Cymru. Some jobs he’s loved, others he ended up doing by accident, because of a serendipity or because he said yes then googled how to do it.

But for over 40 years he’s always drawn and written, as a cliche running to write on top of Mynydd y Garth while avoiding factory work in Taff’s Well to school toilets while being an unqualified teacher/Head of year/undercover plasterer.

Since being made redundant the day his first daughter was born he’s been freelance for 10 years, finally writing for a living. He has written and illustrated a number of books for children and learners of Welsh, culminating in debut Welsh Language Poetry collection Pethau Sy’n Digwydd being shortlisted for Wales Book of The Year 2025 and his Welsh learner books being part of the GCSE curriculum.

He became a presenter of S4C documentary series Pobol y Rhondda because of a broken shoulder playing for Treorchy RFC Seconds, a ukelele and a Twitter post. He went on to work as a regular musical contributor to rugby chat show Jonathan and was part of the presenting team of Bafta nominated flagship series Cynefin.

Join us on Friday the 30th of January to hear Siôn Tomos Owen sharing his journey as a creative freelancer. From illustration and mural painting to delivering creative workshops across Wales, Siôn will talk about building a practice through his company CreaSiôn, the challenges, the wins, and everything in between.