On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Colin Walsh to read and discuss Clara Kumagai’s story, ‘Real Boys’, originally published in Issue 35, Volume 2: Winter 2016 – Fear & Fantasy.

Colin Walsh‘s first novel, Kala, was published in 2023. A number one international bestseller, Kala won the Irish Book Award for Newcomer of the Year, was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the John McGahern Book Prize, and is currently shortlisted for the Nota Bene Prize. Kala was named a book of the year by NPR, the Guardian, Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club, GQ Magazine, and The Independent, amongst others. Walsh’s short stories have won several awards, including the Hennessy Literary Award and the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Prize. His work has been published in The Stinging Fly and broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. He grew up in Galway and lives in Belgium.

Clara Kumagai is from Canada, Japan and Ireland. Her fiction and non-fiction for children and adults has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Banshee and The Kyoto Journal. Her debut YA novel, Catfish Rolling was nominated for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Writing, a finalist for the 2023 Great Reads Award and won the 2023 KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Award.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Rebecca Ivory to read and discuss Eamon McGuinness’s story, ‘Viewpoint’, originally published in Issue 38, Volume 2: Summer 2018 of The Stinging Fly.

Rebecca Ivory is a writer based in Dublin. Her short fiction has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, The Tangerine and Fallow Media. In 2020, she was awarded a Literature Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland. Her first collection of stories, Free Therapy, was published by Jonathan Cape in March 2024.

Eamon McGuinness is from Dublin. His fiction has appeared in The Best Short Stories 2023: The O. Henry Prize Winners, The Stinging Fly, The Lonely Crowd, The Pig’s Back and The Four Faced Liar. He has won an O.Henry Prize for fiction, the Michael McLaverty, Wild Atlantic Words and Maria Edgeworth short story competitions. He is currently working on a novel.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Roisin Kiberd to read and discuss John Patrick McHugh’s essay, ‘Name Your Character’, originally published in Issue 44/Volume 2: Summer 2021 of The Stinging Fly.

Róisín Kiberd has written essays and features for the The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Winter Papers, The White Review, The Guardian and Vice, among other places. Her first book, The Disconnect: A Personal Journey Through the Internet was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2021. Roisin is the non-fiction editor of The Stinging Fly and lectures in creative writing at the University of Galway.

John Patrick McHugh is from Galway. His work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine and Granta and been broadcast on BBC Radio3. He is the fiction editor for Banshee magazine. His debut collection of short stories, Pure Gold, was published in 2021 and his novel, Fun and Games, will be published in 2025.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Caoilinn Hughes to read and discuss Emma Devlin’s short story, ‘The Gift’ originally published in Issue 49 Volume 2, Winter 2023-4. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience as part of Cúirt International Festival of Literature 2024. Please note: there are some brief moments of distortion in the recording of the conversation due to a technical fault with equipment we had on the day. Apologies for this.

Caoilinn Hughes is the author of The Wild Laughter, which won the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award and was longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and Orchid & the Wasp, which won the Collyer Bristow Prize and was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. She was recently the Oscar Wilde Centre Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, and a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. The Alternatives is her third novel.

Emma Devlin is a writer based in Belfast. Her work has featured in Banshee, The Irish Times and elsewhere. In 2019, she won the Benedict Kiely Short Story Competition, and in 2023 was shortlisted for the Mairtín Crawford Short Story Award.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Gavin Corbett to read and discuss Rebecca Ivory’s short story, ‘Arrivals’ originally published in Issue 45 Volume 2, Winter 2021-2. The story was written as part of the ‘One Night Stands’ project, curated by Thomas Morris, for which Rebecca and three other writers were asked to write a short piece of fiction in a single night.

Gavin Corbett is the author of three novels: Innocence, This Is the Way, and Green Glowing Skull. He has been writer-in-residence at Trinity College, UCD and the University of Galway. He lives in Dublin and currently works as a medieval re-enactor, among other bit-part jobs.

Rebecca Ivory is a writer based in Dublin. Her short fiction has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, The Tangerine and Fallow Media. In 2020, she was awarded a Literature Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland. Her first collection of stories, Free Therapy, was published by Jonathan Cape in March 2024.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by Dean Fee and Emily Cooper to discuss their work as writers and editors of The Pig's Back. Read and discussed on the podcast are Danielle McLaughlin’s short story, 'Night of the Silver Fox’ originally published in Issue 23, Volume 2 of The Stinging Fly, and Mathew Sweeney's poem, 'Donegal', originally published in Issue 37, Volume 2 of The Stinging Fly.

Dean Fee is a writer from Cavan. His short fiction and non-fiction has been published in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee and The Tangerine. He has received two Literature Bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland. He was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Foundation Award in 2021 and was editor-in-residence at the Regional Cultural Centre Letterkenny, in 2022. He is represented by Zoë Waldie at RCW and is the managing editor of The Pig’s Back literary journal.

Emily Cooper is a poet and writer based in Donegal. Her work has been published in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Winter Papers, London Magazine and others. She was a 2019 recipient of the Next Generation Award and has been awarded three Literature Bursaries by the Arts Council of Ireland. Her poetry collection Glass was published by Makina Books in 2021 and The Conversation, a collaborative collection written with Jo Burns will be published this year by Doire Press. She is represented by Harriet Moore at David Higham Associates and an editor for The Pig’s Back literary journal.

Danielle McLaughlin is the author of the short-story collection, Dinosaurs on Other Planets, and the novel, The Art of Falling, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Dublin Literary Award. She has been Writer in Residence at University College Cork and Visiting Writer Fellow at the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College, Dublin. She has also designed and delivered workshops in Creative Writing for various organisations and festivals and currently mentors a number of emerging writers.

Matthew Sweeney (1952-2018) was born in Lifford, County Donegal. His poetry collections include A Dream of Maps (1981), A Round House (1983), The Lame Waltzer (1985), Blue Shoes (1989), Cacti (1992), The Bridal Suite (1997), A Smell of Fish (2000), Selected Poems (2002), Sanctuary (2004), Black Moon (2007), The Night Post: A Selection (Salt, 2010), Horse Music (2013), Inquisition Lane (2015), My Life as a Painter (2018), King of a Rainy Country (2018), and Shadow of the Owl (2020). His work has been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award and won the inaugural Pigott Poetry Prize. He was a member of Aosdána.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Claire-Louise Bennett to read and discuss Lucy Sweeney Byrne’s short story, ‘To Cure a Body’ originally published in Issue 35, Volume 2, a special Fear & Fantasy issue, guested edited by Mia Gallagher. You can access the story here.

Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton, before moving to Ireland where she worked in and studied theatre for several years. In 2013 she was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize and went on to complete her debut book, Pond, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. Checkout 19 was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021 and was part of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2022 Selection. Her fiction and essays have appeared in a number of publications including The White Review, The Stinging Fly, gorse, Harper’s Magazine, Vogue Italia, Music & Literature, and The New York Times magazine. She also writes about art and is a frequent contributor to frieze. In addition she has written for Tate etc., and Artforum, and a number of international exhibition catalogues. In 2016 she was writer-in-residence at Temple Bar Gallery & Studio. In 2020, Milan-based art publisher Juxta Press published ‘Fish Out Of Water’, an essay Claire-Louise wrote in response to a self-portrait painting by Dorothea Tanning.

Lucy Sweeney Byrne is the author of Paris Syndrome, a short story collection published by Banshee Press, that was met with critical acclaim and shortlisted for numerous awards, including The Edge Hill Prize. Her forthcoming collection, Let’s Dance, is due for publication in the autumn. Lucy’s short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Southword, AGNI, Litro, Grist, 3:AM magazine, and other literary outlets. She also writes book reviews for The Irish Times. Lucy’s writing has been made possible by The Arts Council of Ireland.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was published by Bloomsbury in 2023.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Sheena Patel to read and discuss Oisín Fagan’s short story, ‘Triangle’ originally published in Issue 39, Volume 2 of The Stinging Fly. You can access the story here.

Sheena Patel is a writer and assistant director for the film and TV industry. She is part of the 4 Brown Girls Who Write collective, and her debut novel, I’m a Fan, won the Discover Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2023, has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for both the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Jhalak Prize. It was Foyles Fiction Book of the Year 2022 and an Observer Best Debut Novel of 2022.

Oisín Fagan was born in 1991 and grew up in County Meath. His collection of stories Hostages was published in 2016, and in 2019 his novel Nobber came out with JM Originals. It was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize and the Butler Literary Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, was a Waterstone’s book of the Month, and was named as one of the books of the year by The Guardian and The Daily Mail. 

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was recently published by Bloomsbury.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Jan Carson to read and discuss Sheila Armstrong’s short story, 'Harlow'. Originally published on The Stinging Fly website in 2021, 'Harlow' is and available to read here.

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 followed by a short-story collection, Children's Children (2016), and two Postcard Stories anthologies. Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award. The Raptures (2022) was shortlisted for the An Post Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She won the Harper's Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize. Jan’s writing has been widely translated. Her short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses is forthcoming in Spring 2024. Jan is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Sheila Armstrong is a writer and editor from the north-west of Ireland. She is the author of two books: How To Gut A Fish (2022), a collection of short stories, and Falling Animals (2023), her debut novel. Her writing has been listed for the Society of Authors Awards, the Kate O’Brien Award, the Irish Book Awards, and the Edge Hill Prize. She is an Arts Council Next Generation Artist.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was recently published by Bloomsbury.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Colin Barrett to read and discuss David McGrath’s short story, ‘The Untameable Donkey’, originally published in our All New Writers issue, Winter 2022/23.

Colin Barrett grew up in County Mayo. His stories have been published in The Stinging Fly, Granta, Harper’s and the New Yorker. His first book, the short story collection Young Skins, won the Guardian First Book Award, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second collection, Homesickness, made the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and was a Book of the Year in Oprah Daily and the Irish Times. His first novel, Wild Houses, will be published in early 2024.

David McGrath is from Baltinglass. His stories at the moment centre around a fictional pub in rural Ireland, of which ‘The Untameable Donkey’ is a part. He has won the Bryan MacMahon Short Story Competition and the Bare Fiction Prize with them, as well as being placed in several other competitions. He has been awarded a residency in Cill Rialaig Arts Centre in November 2023 to finish his novel, The Crack is Barred, which is also set in the world of the pub.

Nicole Flattery is a writer and critic. Her story collection Show Them A Good Time, was published by The Stinging Fly and Bloomsbury in 2019. Her first novel, Nothing Special, was recently published by Bloomsbury.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose a story from the Stinging Fly archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.

On this month’s episode, publisher and founding editor Declan Meade is joined by poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin who has just been announced as The Stinging Fly’s next poetry editor. Annemarie will take over the role from Cal Doyle in November. Here she talks about her own work as poet and editor, and reads recently published poems by Paula Meehan and Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan.

Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet and editor from the Donegal Gaeltacht. Her publications include Bloodroot (Doire Press, 2017), Town (The Salvage Press, 2018) and The Poison Glen (The Gallery Press, 2021). She is a recipient of the Arts Council’s Next Generation Artist Award and a co-recipient of The Markievicz Award. Her literary fellowships include awards from Akademie Schloss Solitude in Germany and the Jack Kerouac House in Orlando. Annemarie was a 2022-2023 Decades of Centenaries Poet in Residence at the Donegal County Service Archives and she is an active member of the Writers in Irish Prisons Scheme. Annemarie has edited The Stony Thursday Book No. 18 (Winter 2022) and the current issue of Poetry Ireland Review (140).

Paula Meehan’s poem ‘Natal Horoscope’ is one of four of her poems that were included in our poetry issue, Summer 2022. Paula’s latest collection, The Solace of Artemis, will be published by Dedalus Press in November.

Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan’s poem ‘The Knee’ was published in our all new writers issue, Winter 2022-23. More of her work has been published by Dedalus Press, UCD Press, Lifeboat Press, Banshee, Poetry Ireland, and others.

The Stinging Fly Podcast invites writers to choose work from our 25-year archive to read and discuss. Previous episodes of the podcast can be found here. The podcast’s theme music is ‘Sale of Lakes’, by Divan. All of the Stinging Fly archive is available to subscribers.