On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Mary O’Donoghue to read and discuss Colm O’Shea’s story, ‘Feeling Gravity’s Pull’, originally published as part of the Online Fiction series on The Stinging Fly website in October 2023. Mary O’Donoghue is the author of The Hour After Happy Hour (Stinging Fly Press, 2023). Her short stories have appeared in Granta, The Kenyon Review, The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Banshee, The Georgia Review, Subtropics, The Common, and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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,...

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...

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...

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Kevin Power to read and discuss Eimear Ryan’s short story, ‘Body Clock’, originally published in our Winter 2009/10 issue. Kevin Power is the author of two novels, Bad Day in Blackrock (2008) and White City (2021), as well as a book of criticism, The Written World (2022). He is the winner of the 2009 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, Irish Times, and many other places....

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Sophie Mackintosh to read and discuss David Hayden’s short story, ‘Leckerdam of the Golden Hand’, originally published in our Summer 2016 issue. Sophie Mackintosh is the author of three novels: The Water Cure, Blue Ticket and Cursed Bread. Her debut novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 and won a Betty Trask Award 2019, and Cursed Bread was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023. She has been published...

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Lucy Caldwell to read and discuss Niamh Prior’s short story, ‘Peter and Jane’. ‘Peter and Jane’ was originally published in July 2021 as part of our online fiction series. Lucy Caldwell was born in Belfast in 1981. She is the author of four novels, several stage plays and radio dramas, and two collections of short stories: Multitudes and Intimacies. She won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2021 for ‘All the People Were...

On this month’s episode, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer Darran Anderson to read and discuss Mary O’Donoghue’s short story, ‘During the Russian Blizzard’. The story first appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of the magazine and was included in Stinging Fly Stories, 2018. It is one of twelve stories included in The Hour After Happy Hour, Mary’s forthcoming short-story collection, which The Stinging Fly Press will publish this summer. Darran Anderson is an Irish essayist, journalist,...

On this month’s episode of the podcast, host Nicole Flattery is joined by writer and editor Michael Magee to read and discuss Louise Kennedy’s short story, ‘The End of the World is a Cul de Sac’. The story first appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of the magazine. It went on to become the title story of Louise’s first collection of stories, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. Trespasses, Louise’s first novel, was published by Bloomsbury earlier this year and was awarded novel of the...

On this month’s episode of the podcast, host Nicole Flattery is joined by novelist and critic Rachel Connolly, to read and discuss a short story, ‘Rustlers’, by Michael Magee, which first appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of the magazine. Michael Magee is the fiction editor of The Tangerine and a graduate of the PhD Creative Writing programme at Queen’s University, Belfast. His writing has appeared in Winter Papers, The Lifeboat and in The 32: An Anthology of Working Class Writing. Close to...

On this month’s episode of the podcast, new host Nicole Flattery is joined by novelist and poet Susannah Dickey, to read and discuss a short story, ‘How They Live Now’, by Wes Lee, which first appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of the magazine. Wes Lee lives in New Zealand. Her work has appeared in a wide array of publications. She has won a number of awards, including The Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award in Galway, and The Short Fiction Writing Prize (University of Plymouth...

For our Winter 2021-22 issue, Editor-at-large Thomas Morris invited four authors to each write a short story in a single night: starting at dusk and submitting by dawn. On this month’s episode of the podcast, he is joined by three of those authors – Marie-Helene Bertino, Rebecca Ivory, and Stephen Sexton – who read from their ‘One Night Stands’ and discuss what happens when you stay up all night to write a story. Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novels Parakeet and 2 a.m. at The...

On this month's episode of the podcast, editor Danny Denton is joined by translator Frank Wynne, to read and discuss a short story, "Britney Spears' Sandwich", by Togolese writer Kangni Alem, which first appeared in English in our most recent issue, Summer 2021. Kangni Alem is an award-winning Togolese writer, critic and playwright. He founded the Atelier Théâtre de Lomé in 1989. He has published five novels and three collections of short stories, the most recent of which is Britney Spears’...

On this month's episode of the podcast, editor Danny Denton is joined by writer John Patrick McHugh, to read and discuss Sean O'Reilly's story 'All Day And All of the Night', which first appeared in our Winter 2011 issue. John Patrick McHugh is from Galway. His fiction has appeared in Winter Papers, The Tangerine, Banshee, Granta and The Stinging Fly. Pure Gold, his debut collection of short stories, was published by New Island in February of this year, and by Fourth Estate in June. He is...

On this month's episode of the podcast, editor Danny Denton is joined by novelist Niamh Campbell, to read and discuss Kevin Power's darkly surreal story 'The Dead Hotel', which first appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of the magazine. Niamh Campbell's debut novel This Happy was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in 2020, and nominated for the An Post Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, and the John McGahern Book Prize. In 2020 she also won the Sunday Times...