Megan Angharad Hunter (Credit: Hay Festival)
Firefly Press has signed the English adaptation of Megan Angharad Hunter’s Wales Book of the Year winning ‘masterpiece’ ‘tu ôl i’r awyr’.
Penny Thomas, publisher at award-winning children’s and YA publisher Firefly Press, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to YA novel ‘Behind the Sky’ from Anwen Hooson at Bird Literary Agency.
The novel was originally published in Welsh as tu ôl i’r awyr (Y Lolfa) and, at the age of 22, Megan became the youngest ever winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award when it scooped the 2021 prize.
The novel has been widely lauded in Wales by both readers and critics alike, with Carnegie-winner Manon Steffan Ros describing it as, ‘The best, most powerful novel I’ve read in years. A masterpiece.’
tu ôl i’r awyr – Megan Angharad Hunter (Y Lolfa)
The English adaptation has been penned by Megan herself, and the novel begins when two LGBTQIA+ teens, Anest and Deian, meet at a psychiatric facility in North-West Wales and form an unexpected friendship. What follows is a character-driven platonic love story about survival, connection, and what it means to come of age as vulnerable, LGBTQIA+ teen in a post-Trump world.
Publisher Penny Thomas said: “Behind the Sky is a beautiful, powerful novel, raw, intelligent and heartrending. Firefly is proud and delighted to be publishing this deeply empathetic novel which will touch a nerve with so many readers.”
Megan Angharad Hunter said: “I began writing the book at sixteen in an effort to create characters I could truly relate to during my own struggles with mental ill health. Back then, I couldn’t even dream that it would be published in my first language, let alone my second!
“It’s surreal to see how far the story has come since then and I’m thrilled and honoured that even more young people beyond the Welsh-language community will be given the chance to meet Anest and Deian and hopefully find some hope, validation and comfort in their journey, as I have. Penny’s enthusiasm and care for Anest and Deian and their journeys is utterly palpable and I can’t wait to work with her as we bring them to life for an English-language audience.”
Behind the Sky is due to land in bookshops September 2026.
About Behind The Sky
Sixteen-year-old Deian wants to be something that doesn’t exist: normal. He wants to feel things in the same way as everyone else, to ride the school bus without having a panic attack and to have real conversations with real friends and not imagined ones with dead artists. Seventeen-year-old Anest, however, has long abandoned her quest for normality. She doesn’t think she deserves to be here on this doomed planet anymore, so doesn’t really care if everyone else thinks she’s weird and obnoxious (well, maybe everyone apart from that girl she can’t stop staring at in group therapy).
Their friendship doesn’t really take off until school term begins, when they find themselves stuck in the same toilet stall at someone else’s birthday party. After this encounter they support each other unfailingly, but they’re unable to turn that same affection towards themselves and continue to grapple with the self-hatred that threatens to drown them. Can Anest and Deian find a way to free themselves from the weight of normality and – together – realise that an entire sky of possibilities is waiting for them?
Megan Angharad Hunter. Picture by yr Urdd
About the author
Megan Angharad Hunter is an author and screenwriter from Penygroes, Dyffryn Nantlle, now based in Cardiff. She studied Welsh and Philosophy at Cardiff University, graduating in 2022. During her studies, she became the youngest ever winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award when her Welsh-language debut, tu ôl i’r awyr, won in 2021.
Furthermore, Megan has won the Tir na n-Og award three times and has been shortlisted for the Wales Books of the Year award twice in the children’s category. She has edited two anthologies that celebrate the Welsh LGBTQIA+ and Disabled communities: Young Welsh Proud and Beyond/Tu Hwnt. For Firefly, she is also the co-author of Cat, part of YA novel The Five (2025).
In recent years, Megan has appeared in literary events worldwide, including the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters in India, the Slovene Book Fair and Hay Festival. A proud member of the LGBTQIA+ and Disabled communities, Megan’s current focus is creating characters – like Anest and Deian – who might provide comfort and community for isolated young people.
Penny Thomas from Firefly Press with one of their books
About Firefly Press
Firefly Press is an independent children’s and YA publisher, publishing quality fiction for 5–19-year-olds. Winner of the Wales Small Press of the Year Nibbies Award 2024, 2023, 2021 and 2020, Firefly is the publisher of A History of my Weird by Chloe Heuch, winner of the Wales Children’s Book of the Year 2025; The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros, winner of the YOTO Carnegie Medal for Writing 2023; Skrimsli by Nicola Davies, winner of the Wales Book of the Year children’s novel 2024, and shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize, and Play by Luke Palmer, shortlisted for the YOTO Carnegie Medal for Writing 2025.
Find out more www.fireflypress.co.uk
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