The Stinging Fly Podcast

In this month's episode of the podcast, Declan Meade is joined by novelist Rónán Hession to read and discuss the story 'Eight Days', by Chinese writer Zou Jingzhi.  Rónán Hession is an award-winning musician and writer. He wrote and recorded music as Mumblin’ Deaf Ro and was nominated for a Choice Music Award for his album, Dictionary Crimes. Leonard And Hungry Paul, Rónán's first book, was published by Bluemoose Books in March 2019 and earned him  nominations for both Best Newcomer at the Irish Book Awards 2019 and the Dalkey Emerging Writer Award 2020. Zou Jingzhi is an acclaimed Chinese author who has written extensively for the stage and screen, as well as fiction and poetry. He is a founding member of theatre collective Longmashe, and his opera The Night Banquet was performed in English translation at Lincoln Centre in New York in 2002. 'Eight Days' was published in our special translation issue in Summer 2013. 'Eight Days' was translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, who has translated novels by Yan Ge, Chan Ho-Kei, Li Er, Zhang Yueran, Yeng Pway Ngon and Lo Yi-Chin, among others. He also writes and translates plays. His novel State of Emergency won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2018. He lives in New York City. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.

Caelainn Hogan is the author of Republic of Shame: Stories from Ireland's Institutions for Fallen Women, published in 2019 by Penguin. She has worked as a journalist and filed stories from all over the world for publications like National Geographic, the New York Times magazine, Harper's, the New Yorker, and The Guardian. She's also written essays and reported pieces for The Dublin Review and The Stinging Fly.  For this episode of the podcast, Caelainn has chosen to read 'On Non-Fiction about Housing and Homelessness', by Lois Kapila, co-founder and managing editor of The Dublin Inquirer, a reader-funded city newspaper for Dublin. Lois was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2019. This piece was published online in June 2017 as a prelude to our Winter 2017 issue, which featured a special section on housing issues. Caelainn's piece 'No Shelter', also discussed in this episode, can be found in that issue too. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.

Mark O'Connell, author of To Be A Machine and Notes from an Apocalypse, joins Ian Maleney to read and discuss 'Bland God: Notes on Mark Zuckerberg', an essay from our Summer 2018 issue written by Roisin Kiberd. Mark O'Connell is a writer based in Dublin. His books, To Be a Machine: Encounters With a Post-Human Future, and Notes From An Apocalypse, are published by Granta in the UK, and Doubleday in the US. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker’s “Page-Turner” blog; his work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Observer, and The Independent.  He has a PhD in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, and in 2013 his academic monograph on the work of the novelist John Banville, John Banville’s Narcissistic Fictions, was published by Palgrave Macmillan. He was an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow from 2011 to 2012 at Trinity College, where he taught contemporary literature. He won the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize for To Be A Machine, and the 2019 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Roisin Kiberd is a writer and journalist from Dublin who has written several pieces for the Stinging Fly, and her writing about modern technology has been published in The Guardian, The Dublin Review, and Vice's Motherboard, where she wrote a column about internet subcultures. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for everyone to read during the coronavirus crisis.

Naoise Dolan, author of the acclaimed debut novel, Exciting Times, joins Declan Meade in studio to read and discuss the subtle gothic horror of Emma Donoghue's 'Looking for Petronilla', a story that appeared way back in Issue 11 of the magazine in Winter 2001. Naoise Dolan was born in Dublin, studied at Trinity College, and completed a master's degree in Victorian literature at Oxford. Her writing has featured in The Dublin Review and The Stinging Fly. Her debut novel Exciting Times has been described by Hilary Mantel as “droll, shrewd and unafraid” – it is published this month by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK, and in June by Ecco in the US. Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel Room was an international best-seller, and a finalist for the Man Booker Prize – the movie adaptation of the book was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Donoghue's 1995 novel Hood won the Stonewall Book Award, and her novel Slammerkin won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian Fiction. Her latest novel, Akin, was published last year. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.

To celebrate the publication of her debut collection, Modern Times, Cathy Sweeney reads 'The Chair', a dark and funny story from the book.  Modern Times is available to purchase from The Stinging Fly: https://stingingfly.org/product/modern-times/ Praise for Modern Times: "Cathy Sweeney's stories have already attracted a band of fanatical devotees, and this first collection is as marvellous as we could have hoped for. A unique imagination, a brilliant debut." —Kevin Barry “I loved this collection. It vibrates with a glorious strangeness! Magnificently weird, hugely entertaining, deeply profound.” —Danielle McLaughlin “Cathy Sweeney's work is jaw-droppingly good: inventive, funny, lush. One of the best short story writers working today.” —Sinéad Gleeson “In Modern Times, Cathy Sweeney gives us fables of the present that are funny, vertiginous and melancholy.” —David Hayden

In the first episode of 2020, Declan Meade is joined by Cathy Sweeney, to read from and discuss the work of Tania Hershman.  Cathy Sweeney’s writing has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Egress, Winter Papers, Banshee, and The Tangerine. Her stories have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut collection of short fiction, Modern Times, will be published by Stinging Fly Press in March.  Tania Hershman is a poet, writer, teacher and editor based in the North of England. A former science journalist, she has published three collections of short stories and a poetry collection, while her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. Her writing has appeared several times in the Stinging Fly over the years. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.

Stephen Sexton joins us on this month's episode of the Stinging Fly podcast, to read and discuss two poems by Sinéad Morrissey. Stephen Sexton's debut collection, If All The World And Love Were Young, was published in September 2019 by Penguin, and won The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection in October. Sexton’s first pamphlet, Oils (Emma Press), was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice; he won the UK National Poetry Competition in 2016 with 'The Curfew'; he won an Eric Gregory Award in 2018. He lives in Belfast, where he teaches at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. Sinéad Morrissey was born in Portadown in 1972, grew up in Belfast, and holds a PhD from Trinity College, Dublin. In January 2014, she won the T. S. Eliot Prize for her fifth collection Parallax, and in 2017 she won the Forward Prize for Poetry for her sixth collection On Balance. In 2007, Morrissey was awarded the Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry, while her poem 'Through the Square Window' took first place in the UK National Poetry Competition the same year. She is lecturer in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, Queen’s University, Belfast. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.

Oisín Fagan, novelist and short-story writer, chooses 'Hay', a story by David Hayden which first appeared in our Spring 2010 issue.  Oisín Fagan has had fiction published in The Stinging Fly, New Planet Cabaret and the anthology Young Irelanders. He won the inaugural Penny Dreadful Novella Prize for his novella The Heirophants. His debut collection of stories, Hostages, was published in 2016 by New Island, and his first novel, Nobber, was published this year by JM Originals. He currently lives and works in Dublin. David Hayden’s writing has appeared in gorse, the Yellow Nib, the Moth, Stinging Fly, Spolia and the Warwick Review, and his poetry in PN Review. He was shortlisted for the 25th RTÉ Francis MacManus Short Story prize. Born in Dublin, he has lived in the US and Australia and is now based in Norwich, UK, where he is currently working on a novel. His debut collection, Darker With The Lights On, was published in 2017 by Little Island. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.

Eimear Ryan, writer of fiction and essays, as well as the co-editor of Banshee, joins Danny Denton to read and discuss 'Danny', a story by Lucy Sweeney Byrne taken from our 2016 special issue on the Easter Rising. Eimear Ryan is from Co. Tipperary and lives in Cork. She writes about sport for the Irish Examiner and is an editor for the literary journal Banshee. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Winter Papers, Granta, The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Town & Country (Faber) and The Long Gaze Back (New Island). She is currently working on a collection of essays, and a novel.  Lucy Sweeney Byrne is a writer of short stories, essays and poetry. Her work has appeared in Banshee, The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Grist, and the anthology Stinging Fly Stories (2018). From Greystones, Co. Wicklow, she currently lives in London. Her debut collection, Paris Syndrome, will be published by Banshee Press in September. The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.

Wendy Erskine, author of the acclaimed debut collection Sweet Home, joins Danny Denton at the Belfast Book Festival to read and talk about 'Prosinečki', a story by Adrian Duncan taken from our Summer 2018 issue of the magazine. Wendy Erskine’s work has been published in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, and on BBC Radio 4. Her work has been collected in Stinging Fly Stories, Female Lines: New Writing by Women from Northern Ireland (New Island Books), and Being Various: New Irish Short Stories (Faber and Faber). Sweet Home is her first collection, published in 2018 by The Stinging Fly Press and in 2019 by Picador. Sweet Home has been nominated for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. Adrian Duncan is an artist and writer based in Ireland and Berlin. His visual-art work is primarily installation based, most often using photography, film and sculpture. His process of making and the aesthetic of his works derives from an interest in language, and the processes of construction – amateur and professional. His writing has been published by Frieze, the Times Literary Supplement (UK), Art & the Public Sphere (UK), the Dublin Review, Architecture Ireland, The Stinging Fly, and the Irish Times, among others. His debut novel Love Notes from a German Building Site was published by The Lilliput Press in 2019. He is coeditor of Paper Visual Art Journal (IRL/DE). The Stinging Fly Podcast invites Irish 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 for subscribers to read – subscribe now and access 20 years of the best new writing.