Penny Thomas, Publisher at children’s and YA publisher Firefly Press has acquired World English rights in prize-winning, co-created YA novel The Five (Y Pump) from Welsh language publishers, Y Lolfa.
Originally published in Welsh as a series of five novellas, The Five was initiated by writer and producer Elgan Rhys, employing an innovative writing process which teamed up-and-coming authors with debut co-authors who had lived experience of the subject matter. The translation is currently being undertaken by one of the original authors, Mared Roberts, with input from the other authors.
The novel focusses on the friendship between five very different teenagers who find themselves thrown together at their school in north-west Wales. Tim, Tami, Aniq, Robyn and Cat fight for each other and their place in the world, in the face of provocation and occasionally challenging personal circumstances. Both embracing and subverting conventional coming-of-age narratives, The Five is a distinctive and relatable depiction of young adult life in Wales today.
Each novella was originally published with a prologue by 2023 Yoto Carnegie Medal winner Manon Steffan Ros, who was a creative mentor on the original series. Read on for a sneak peek of the English translation of Manon’s prologue.
‘We were intrigued and impressed by the radical authorship process, and enthusiasm behind The Five,’ said Firefly publisher, Penny Thomas, ‘and we’re very pleased we will be able to bring this novel to an English-speaking readership.’
‘I am delighted to be collaborating with Firefly on expanding the world of these five characters and welcoming more readers into their lives,’ says Elgan Rhys. ‘Our joyous collaboration on the original series was an untested way of working, and it’s been humbling to see it be embraced by readers and the industry. I’m certain Mared’s adaptation will continue to inspire young people, particularly those who might not be used to seeing their experiences authentically portrayed.’
And Darren Chetty of Books for Keeps said, ‘I’m delighted that Y Pump will be translated into English. The Five depicts a diverse, modern Wales and has been written through a pioneering, collaborative approach that I hope might be adopted more widely in children’s and YA literature. It’s a multi-perspective story written by young authors immersed in both the genre and contemporary reality of the coming-of-age story.’
The Five: Prologue by Carnegie 2023 Medal-winning author, Manon Steffan Ros
In this town…
In this town, where the cracks in the pavements are veins under our feet. Where on Sundays, the seagulls pick on cubed colours of puke from last night, and the shining shards of bottles glint prettily by the park railings. Where the sea is blue or green or silver or grey, breathing icily over the streets and houses.
I know this place. I know the people, without having to know their names or speaking to them. I know them as I know the graffiti on the bus stop, and the town clock face that has spent fifteen years insisting that it’s twenty to nine. The people are a part of here as much as the roads, the buildings, the history.
There are five that illuminate this place as the streetlights do.
Sometimes, they are alone, wrapped in coats or bent into hoods against the roar of rain or reprobation, their tiny headphones muting the world. But sometimes, they are two or three or four or five, and that is when they catch the light.
The wheels of her chair sighing their relief on to the pavement, almost lost under the song of her friends’ laughter. A shy look between two, the locking of eyes more intimate than any touch. All the hues of a heart in long, soft scarves. These are different, this Five, but different from what? Sometimes, all you need to do in order to stand out of the crowd is to smile.
Arm in arm, someone’s head on someone’s shoulder, a private smile, a half-whispered conversation, dirty jokes and raucous laughter. Best mates. This town has seen generations of them, tightly knotted friends, too young to know that these are the best friends they’ll ever have. Too young to know that who they are now, insecure and imperfect and uncompromising, is the best version of them that will ever exist.
In this town…
They have mettle and melody. Joy and juxtaposition. They fight, are friends, and are as broken as the cracks in the pavement and as perfect as the tiny flowers that grow from them. This town, now, belongs to them.
Stunning YA novel The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros and published by Firefly Press, has today won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing.
Announced at a Barbican Award Ceremony this lunchtime, live-streamed to schools, The Blue Book of Nebo is the first book in translation to win this prestigious UK award.
Publisher Penny Thomas said: ‘Huge congratulations to Manon on this historic achievement. This superb young adult novel is a deceptively simple story of a dystopian future. It gives the reader pause for thought, infused with warmth, gentleness, and powerful new ways to look at our world and the ways we live in it.
‘It’s truly wonderful that a novel adapted from Welsh by the author is the first book in translation to win the Award. I hope there will be many more.
‘We’d like to thank the Carnegie judges for picking The Blue Book of Nebo as their winner, and all the CILIP members who nominated and championed it. We’d also like to thank the Books Council of Wales for its support for this title and for literature from Wales in both languages, without which Firefly would not have been able to publish this book.
‘Most of all we’d like to thank Manon on her brilliant, lyrical and deeply moving novel, which we feel is destined to become a modern classic, and for allowing Firefly to publish this English adaptation of Llyfr Glas Nebo. We are so happy to be a part of this journey.’
Award-winning indie children’s and YA publisher Firefly Press has appointed four new staff members as it expands the business in its tenth year of publishing.
Experienced children’s Editor Hayley Fairhead has joined the editorial team, and Grace Samuel comes on board as Marketing and Publicity Officer. And in two new positions for the press, Megan Rees, moves from Book-ish in Crickhowell to start as Business Manager next week (June 19th) while Sian Jones, currently with Priddy Books, joins as Sales, Marketing and Rights Manager in July.
‘Firefly has come a long way since we started out with just two of us, and a determination to publish quality children’s and YA fiction, ten years ago,’ said Publisher, Penny Thomas.
‘We’re absolutely delighted to welcome the new staff members, who will be instrumental in consolidating Firefly’s position in the children’s and YA market and spreading the word about our terrific titles in the future as we continue to grow.’
Hayley Fairhead
Hayley began work in the publishing industry at Oxford University Press, over 20 years ago. Since then, she has worked in-house for Hachette Children’s Books and Pearson Education, before working as a freelance editor for a variety of different publishers. During that time, she worked as a key member of the Golden Egg Academy team, helping writers of children’s fiction hone and develop their writing skills. She joined Firefly Press as Editor in April 2023.
Grace Samuel
Grace started her publishing journey at Book Island Books in 2020 while completing a Masters at Bath Spa University in Children’s Publishing. After two and a half years at Welsh publisher Graffeg, Grace is thrilled to be joining the Firefly Team.
Megan Rees
Megan made the career jump into books in 2021 when she took on the role of bookshop manager at Book-ish in Crickhowell. After two years, Megan is thrilled to make the move into publishing and join the Firefly team. In her spare time, Megan is also completing a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
Sian Jones
Sian was a bookseller then buyer at Waterstones for 12 years and worked at English Heritage Retail before making a move into publishing, working at Watkins, Quarto and most recently as UK Sales Manager at Priddy.
Penny Thomas, Publisher at award-winning children’s and YA publisher Firefly Press, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to YA thriller Lie or Die by debut author A.J. Clack, from Saskia Leach at Kate Nash Literary Agency Ltd.
When a casting call is announced for new reality TV show Lie or Die, Kass is tricked into auditioning by her best friend, Thea. Billed as Big Brother meets Mafia, Lie or Die pits contestants against each other as they try to discover who is a murderous agent and who is an innocent player.
But when contestants start to turn up dead (the real kind, not the fake kind), Kass realises that winning the game is the least of her worries. No longer a game of truth and lies, Kass and her friends are in a fight for survival, believing the world watches in ignorance of their deadly reality.
Can Kass and the remaining contestants find the killer and escape the game before anyone else is murdered?
Firefly Editor, Hayley Fairhead said: ‘In a world where lies are the new truth, who would you believe? A dark, twisty thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat to the very end. I can’t wait for readers to get their hands on this one.’
And A.J. Clack added: ‘Mafia is the perfect murder mystery party game and I always imagined there to be a story in taking it to its extreme. Lie or Die was born from the question: in a game built on lies, when everyone is watching, would you have what it takes to survive? I am beyond excited that the novel has found a home with Penny and the Firefly team and can’t wait to share. So, buckle up: Reality TV just got real.’
The novel is slated for publication in March 2024.
A.J. Clack moved from a small village in Wales to London, to pursue a career in television. She worked on a wide range of shows from Teletubbies to Friends, while also writing plays for the Edinburgh Fringe and development scripts/pilots for children’s television. She now lives in Essex with a houseful of teenagers and can often be found freezing on the side of a rugby pitch.
Lie or Die was a SCWBI Undiscovered Voices 2022 winner and is featured in the UV2022 Anthology.
A children’s poetry anthology of ‘dragon-focused’ poems, conceived and edited by the National Poet of Wales, Hanan Issa, is due to hit the bookshelves next year.
The collection will be published by award-winning children’s and YA publisher Firefly Press. And the ground-breaking new anthology from diverse Welsh writers is aimed at children aged between eight and twelve, for whom both Hanan and Firefly feel poetry is ‘sorely underrepresented’.
The collection, entitled And I Hear Dragons, explores the concept of identity, and Hanan has written a poem of the same name that ‘celebrates the children of Wales as ferociously brave mythical beasts’, taking on discrimination, pollution etc, and upholding Wales’ tradition of croesawgar (welcoming).
A number of Welsh writers from diverse backgrounds across Wales have already been approached to write poems for the anthology, with contributors to be revealed in due course.
Announcing the collection, Hanan Issa said: ‘Wales has a such a rich history of poetry and I’m keen to continue encouraging that enthusiasm in the young people of Wales today. And I Here Dragons is a collection that roars in celebration of Wales’ distinct sense of identity and belonging!
Firefly publisher, Penny Thomas, added: ‘We were delighted when Hanan approached us with And I Hear Dragons! We had been trying to find a way to get a children’s poetry anthology from Wales off the ground for some time, but with Hanan’s insightful vision and knowledge of poetry from Wales, we are confident this
title will take flight and become a valuable and inspiring collection for children to enjoy and find themselves in poetry.
‘We are so looking forward to working with the National Poet and all the contributors on this.’
Hanan Issa is a writer, poet and artist, as well as the co-founder of the Where I’m Coming From open mic collective, whose debut pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts was published by Burning Eye Books. Her work has been performed and published on platforms such as BBC Wales, ITV Wales, Huffington Post, StAnza Festival, Poetry Wales, Wales Arts International and the British Council. Alongside her short narrative film The Golden Apple, she is currently working on an essay anthology Welsh: plural, published by Repeater Books, as well as a children’s short story contribution to Unbound’s The Mab, a retelling of the classic Mabinogi stories.
A young adult novel about schooldays in north Wales, an illustrated story for younger readers, and ‘a darkly comic tale of what it means to be alive, 17 and living in Port Talbot’ will be the first three titles in a forthcoming series of Wales-based children’s and YA literature from Firefly Press.
The first three signings in this series are Patience Agbabi, Zillah Bethell and Emma-Jane Smith-Barton. The books will publish from autumn 2024 onwards, and it is hoped that there will be at least another three in the series of contemporary Welsh children’s fiction.
‘We felt there was a lack of children’s and YA stories that reflect what it is like to live in or grow up in Wales in recent times,’ said Thomas. ‘When we approached established authors about this, we were thrilled with the hugely positive reaction from writers who may never have been asked to write about this part of their experience before! We are also looking at publishing them simultaneously in Welsh, to ensure as wide a reach as possible. All this has been made possible by New Audiences Fund from Creative Wales and the Books Council of Wales, and we can’t wait to read the results!
Born in Papua New Guinea, Zillah Bethell has lived in south Wales for many years. Patience Agbabi was born in London and attended secondary school in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, while Emma-Jane Smith-Barton is from south Wales.
Patience Agbabi is the author of four critically acclaimed poetry collections and three middle-grade novels one of which, The Infinite, (Canongate, 2020) won the Wales Book of the Year: Children & Young People category.
She said: ‘I’m delighted to be working on a young adult novel with Firefly. I first got into literature and popular culture at school in north Wales so I can’t wait to recreate that setting through my fictional protagonists.’
Emma-Jane Smith-Barton studied English and Creative Writing (BA) at the University of Warwick and has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. Her short stories have appeared in various publications such as Mslexia and The Bristol Short Story Prize anthology (under a pseudonym for her adult writing), and in 2017 she was one of twelve writers chosen from over 2,000 applications for WriteNow, a scheme run by Penguin Random House to increase diversity in literature.
Her first novel, The Million Pieces of Neena Gill was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Award, the Branford Boase Award and the Romantic Novelist’s Association Debut Romantic Novel Award.
Growing up between cultures in south Wales has heavily influenced her writing and she is especially interested in exploring themes of identity and belonging. Before writing, she taught in secondary schools for six years, and is passionate about increasing awareness of mental health in young people.
Emma will be writing an illustrated story for 7-9 year-old readers, set in Wales. She said: ‘As a Welsh-Pakistani woman I would have loved a book like this when I was growing up, to help me navigate the difficulties (and discover the beauty) of belonging to more than one culture, and I hope it will help children in a similar position to feel seen and less alone in that challenge.’
Zillah Bethell lives in the south Wales valleys with her partner and two children. She has written some four books for adults and four middle-grade titles for children, including The Shark Caller (Usborne 2021) which was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award.
Her as yet untitled YA novel for Firefly is set in Port Talbot, and features protagonist Apricot Jones. Zillah describes it as: ‘A darkly comic tale of what it means to be alive, 17 and living in Port Talbot!’
