Welsh author longlisted for Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Welsh novelist Tristan Hughes has been longlisted for the prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for his latest novel, Boundary Waters.

The Walter Scott Prize, founded in 2010, is regarded as one of the UK’s most significant accolades for historical fiction, celebrating works that demonstrate originality, innovation and quality of writing.

Previous winners include Hilary Mantel and Sebastian Barry.

Hughes’ novel is set in 19th-century Canada and centres on the fur trade, a period marked by exploration, shifting borders and cultural encounter.

The story follows Arthur Stanton, an inexperienced and often ill-equipped traveller who paddles from Lachine towards Lake Superior, crossing remote wilderness and the contested boundary between Canada and the United States.

The book traces Stanton’s encounters with unfamiliar landscapes and communities, portraying him as “hapless in trade, hopeless in love, and terrified of the landscape and people that surround him.”

Hughes said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to see Boundary Waters included on such an amazing list of books.

“Some of my favourite novels and authors from the last few decades… have been winners of the prize, so to be a part of it is wonderful.”

Ynys Môn

Hughes was born in Atikokan, northern Ontario, before being raised on Ynys Môn, where his family farmed. His work has frequently drawn on themes of place, identity and memory, often reflecting his Welsh-Canadian background.

He has previously described the origins of Boundary Waters as rooted in his own teenage experience of the Canadian wilderness.

“I know precisely where Boundary Waters began,” Hughes said.

“With a fourteen-year-old me setting out, alone in a canoe… my head full of romantic notions about the wilderness.”

He recalled how those early expectations quickly gave way to the realities of the environment.

“Romantic notions have a short shelf-life up there,” he said, describing a night spent without food or fire after losing supplies and wetting his matches.

“As soon as there was a sliver of light on the horizon I was paddling back to camp — one day older, a few years wiser.”

Chair of Judges Katie Grant said selecting the 2026 longlist had again proved challenging.

“As always, compiling the longlist… isn’t easy,” she said.

“The 2026 list spans all human experience and emotional intensity… readers will find writing so visceral it will remain with you long after you have closed the book.”

Hughes is the author of four previous novels — Send My Cold Bones Home, Revenant, Eye Lake and Hummingbird. His short fiction has appeared in a range of international journals, and he is a recipient of both the Rhys Davies Short Story Prize and an O. Henry Award.

He is currently a Reader in Creative Writing at Cardiff University.

The Walter Scott Prize shortlist is expected to be announced later this year.

Boundary Waters by Tristan Hughes is out now in paperback from Parthian Books.