Pittsburgh Author J. Kenton Pierce Nominated for 2025 Prometheus Award

Raconteur Press
pr@raconteurpress.com

 

“Being nominated for a Prometheus is an honor that’s both tremendous and baffling,” commented Pierce. “It’s not something I imagined happening, particularly with my first novel. It’s also a pretty solid notice that I can’t afford to slack off with future work.”

 

A Kiss for Damocles is the first book in Pierce’s “Tales of the Long Night” universe. Set in a universe where brutal interstellar war has ravaged worlds, this series of interconnected books and short stories covers the life of Shaifennen Roehe. A young homesteader who is doing her best to survive, Shai is the right girl in the right place to serve as a catalyst in her world’s— and eventually, her civilization’s—restoration.

 

“I’m a rural Yinzer,” said Pierce. “Pittsburgh, its satellite mill burgs, and the coal and coke towns around it have definitely colored my work. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that I tend to write rural or blue-collar characters. And now I’m having a nostalgic jones for fries from the O after a night at The Upstage or The Attic.”

 

Pierce isn’t standing alone in the ranks of Prometheus nominees. He is joining fellow Raconteur Press author Dave Freer, who was nominated earlier this year for his boy’s adventure book, Storm-Dragon.

 

“The simple fact that our little press, in its first year of publishing novels and boys adventure books, winds up with not one, but two Prometheus Award nominated authors is humbling,” said Raconteur founder Ian McMurtrie. “As a press, we are tremendously excited to have multiple authors nominated for the award this year.”

 

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