QUEER SQUARE MILE: Queer Short Stories from Wales

A new anthology of short stories in Welsh sheds light on a largely hidden queer cultural history, featuring work by John Sam Jones, Sian James, Rhys Davies, Deborah Kay Davies, Aled Islwyn, and Kate North. New translations of Kate Roberts, Mihangel Morgan, Jane Edwards, Pennar Davies, and Dylan Huw make their compelling stories available to a non-Welsh-speaking readership. The stories explore gender fluidity, sexual awakening, coming out, and redefining one's place in the world, set in familiar Welsh settings.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 676 pages
Publication date: 01 February 2023
Publisher: Parthian Books

This groundbreaking anthology, the first of its kind in Wales, unveils a largely concealed queer cultural heritage through the thoughtful curation of over 40 captivating short stories (spanning from 1837 to 2018), featuring the talents of John Sam Jones, Sian James, Rhys Davies, Deborah Kay Davies, Aled Islwyn, and Kate North. For the first time, new translations by Kate Roberts, Mihangel Morgan, Jane Edwards, Pennar Davies, and Dylan Huw bring these compelling narratives to a non-Welsh-speaking audience. An accessible yet scholarly introduction contextualizes the writers and their stories within their historical and literary milieus. Within these tales, gender defies convention, as a dashing traveling companion reveals unexpected depths in the intimate confines of a mail coach, a young woman courageously assumes her father's role as the head of the household, and an actor and patron find themselves entangled in perilous games. In the more fantastical realms, we encounter talking rats, flirtations with fascism, and daring escapes from a utopian post-virus world. These stories revolve around sexual awakening, coming out, and reimagining one's place in the world. While release and a sense of exhilaration may be found in the distant cities of Europe or North Africa, the majority of the stories take place in familiar Welsh settings, such as schoolrooms, provincial towns, mining villages, tourist resorts, and sacred islands. The intensity of desire, whether overt, playful, or coded, imbues this collection with richness and often surprises, as it reimagines the multifaceted meanings of being queer and Welsh across different eras and locations.

Weight: 716g
Dimension: 137 x 215 x 58 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781914595585