Local Fires

Chloe enters the local talent show, seeking fame, fortune and a ticket out of town. Meanwhile, her mother, Angie, wakes up hungover on the morning of her fourth wedding day. William ponders his impending autism diagnosis through the lenses of Descartes and Hollywood heartthrob Clive Owen. Jimmy, the hot-headed proprietor of a firework shop, rages at the emergence of a rival store, as his ex-wife considers the existential ramifications of her uncanny resemblance to TV cleaning personality Kim Woodburn.

Local Fires sees debut writer Joshua 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.

In this stunning series of interconnected tales, fires both literal and metaphorical, local and all-encompassing, blaze together to herald the emergence of a singular new Welsh literary voice.

‘Brilliant. A broken-voiced homage to the towns we do our best to survive. Every single story burns.’ ― Ben Pester, author of Am I In the Right Place?

‘These quietly assured and beautifully crafted vignettes of Llanelli show a writer with a very fine eye for the textures and atmospheres of place, and a wonderful ear for its voices. These stories capture the bruised yearning of their characters with a bittersweet and understated lyricism.’ ― Tristan Hughes, Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award-winning author of Hummingbird

‘Joshua Jones has written a set of extraordinary short stories so compelling I just couldn’t put them down once begun and can’t imagine his home of Llanelli existing without them. Local Fires is a collection of alternative, overlooked views from what feels like a spongiform margin. Often set out as monologues or thoughtforms, and often daring in their execution, these stories are empathic, odd and utterly convincing, even if a strange magic whispers from just around the corner. Jones has a clear talent in his grasp; some of these stories punch holes in the sky.’ ― Richard Foster, author of Flower Factory

‘Local Fires is a phenomenal debut collection. These sharply drawn stories coalesce into a lyrical, poignant and darkly comic portrait of life in a small, working-class Welsh town.’ ― Claire Carroll, author of The Unreliable Nature Writer

These interconnected tales, with characters roaming through several of them, are über modernist, culturally sophisticated and yet daringly down to earth. The characters encounter despair, loss, aggression, hope and hilarity as they trudge through their bewildering lives. The fractious honesty of these short stories will live in you like a cerebral haunting long after their truths have unravelled. ― Topher Mills, author of Sex on Toast (Goodreads Review)

Joshua Jones’s Local Fires had a hold over me that is rooted in memory, with its vignettes of small-town life, damp at the edges with lager, stupidity and all-consuming romance. ― Ben Pester for Granta, Best Books of 2023 article. https://granta.com/books-of-the-year-2023/

Jones’ skill is in threading a poignancy, a searching narrative of hope and community, in amongst bittersweet comedic elements and visceral, bloody anger. This debut is still fizzing, still volatile – between its covers it sustains that feeling of not having settled yet – a promising step toward whatever is next. ― Anthony Shapland for Nation Cymru, top picks of 2023.https://nation.cymru/culture/picks-of-2023-gaynor-funnell-anthony-shapland-and-jonathan-lee

Joshua Jones (he/him) is a queer, autistic writer and artist from Llanelli, South Wales. He co-founded Dyddiau Du, a NeuroQueer art and literature space in Cardiff. His fiction and poetry have been published by Poetry Wales, Broken Sleep Books, Gutter and others. He is a Literature Wales Emerging Writer for 2023, and is currently working with the British Council to connect Welsh and Vietnamese queer writers. Local Fires is his first publication of fiction.

LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2024.

Local Fires sees debut writer Joshua 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.

Jones runs the Cardiff-based neurodivergent, queer-led community library and art/lit space, Dyddiau Du.