The Stinging Fly Podcast

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 elsewhere. She has published poetry collections with Salmon Poetry and Dedalus Press and translations in dual language volumes from Cló Iar-Chonnacht, Bloodaxe Books, and Yale University Press. Her novel Before the House Burns was published by Lilliput Press in 2010. She is senior fiction editor at the literary magazine AGNI. From County Clare, she lives in Alabama. Colm O’Shea’s work has appeared in gorse, The Vigilantia Anthology (Chroma Editions), Winter Papers, Sublunary Editions (Firmament), 3AM Magazine, The Tangerine, Fallow Mediaand others. He has also been broadcast on RTÉ radio (Keywords). He was a winner of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair in 2012, and won The Aleph Writing Prize in 2019. His debut work of experimental nonfiction is scheduled to be published by LJMcD Communications in 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. ⁠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 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.