We are delighted to announce that Joshua Jones’s acclaimed debut short-story collection, Local Fires, has picked up another accolade – a longlisting for the 2024 Polari First Book Prize. This follows Jones’s shortlisting for the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize, where he was the only debut author in the final six. Robert Harries, the commissioning editor of Local Fires, stated: ‘I’m thoroughly delighted for and proud of Joshua. This is yet another well-deserved accolade that continues to indicate that Local Fires is not only a seminal release within both the Welsh and queer literary canons, but also a rewarding, nuanced, skilfully woven read that will resonate with readers anywhere. I genuinely believe he will grow to become one of our country’s major talents, and recognition from a prize as esteemed as this only reinforces that.’
Crowned a book of the year for 2023 by Granta, Lunate, The Lonely Crowd, Nation.Cymru and Wales Arts Review, Local Fires sees Jones turn his acute focus to his birthplace of Llanelli, south Wales. Sardonic and melancholic, joyful and grieving, these multifaceted stories may be set in a small town, but they have reach far beyond their locality. From the inertia of living in an ex-industrial working-class area, to gender, sexuality, toxic masculinity and neurodivergence, Jones has crafted a collection versatile in theme and observation, as the misadventures of the town’s inhabitants threaten to spill over into an incendiary finale.