WRITER AS GERBIL

I feel like a gerbil running on a wheel. A rather large gerbil, mind...

I am finished final edits on Novel 2, The Closet of Savage Mementos and am just awaiting final proofs before it goes on its merry way to the printer. Whoop! There will be launches in Dublin and Galway in April. In the course of this last edit I discovered (thanks to Deirdre O'Neill, my lovely editor) that my obssesion-words while writing it were hover, grunt and manic. Ahem.

It's weird the way your relationship with a manuscript changes the closer it becomes to being a book. Doubly odd on this one, maybe, because it was inspired by very personal events in my life when I was a mere 22 year old. So I love the novel, then I don't, then I want to bury it, then I want to tell people about it constantly because I feel so affectionate towards it. Mostly, I want to see the final cover and, then, the final book. Maybe then I can start to 'own' it.

Meantime I am rewriting Novel 3, Miss Emily, using a list of suggestions from my editors in Penguin USA and Penguin Canada. It is close work and enormously rewarding. I am plunged back into Emily Dickinson's world and it is a place I am very happy to go. I heart research.

In the midst of all this I am enjoying the buzz around the spring issue of The Stinging Fly (I edited the fiction section) which came out this week and will be launched in March. And I'm looking forward to taking part in the Publishing Day at the IWC next Saturday, the 8th March. It promises to be a great event. The Penguin Irl Director will be there as well as a UK literay agent, poetry experts and there will be a writers' panel, which I am taking part in.

I'll be on Arena on RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday night reviewing Bark, the new story collection from wonder-writer Lorrie Moore. Oh, Lorrie, please be my BFF. (Does anyone else become convinced they would get along brilliantly with all their favourite writers?)

Also I am busy prepping for the launch of After Garbally, by Group 8, the exhibition by my artist collective here in Ballinasloe on the 14th March. It's full steam ahead with preps for that at the moment.

There are a hundred other things waving flags in my general direction and I'll get to them anon, so if you are waiting for something from me (a blurb, an edit, a hello) hang in there, I'll be with you soon!

DAVY BYRNE'S DEADLINE LOOMS

Anne Enright, former winner & current judge of the Davy Byrne's Award

There is just one month to go to the Davy Byrne's Short Story Award deadline. Eek. That rather scuppers my plan to complete my story on my Welsh retreat at Gladstone's Library at the end of this month. I have no idea how I am going to finish it on time now as I am under deadline with Novel 3 and the Novel 2 PR stuff is just about to go into overdrive. Anyway, finish it I must because I began it with this comp in mind and don't want to not enter as that would feel wrong.

The Skinny:

Prize: €15,000 first prize, plus five runner-up prizes of €1,000
Judges: Anne Enright (winner of the inaugural Davy Byrne's Award), Yiyun Li and Jon McGregor

Rules:
The competition is open to Irish citizens and to writers who are resident or were born in the thirty-two counties. Entries must consist of a previously unpublished short story written in English. The maximum word count is 15,000 words, no minimum. Only one story per entrant.

Entries must be posted/delivered to Davy Byrnes Short Story Award, c/o Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, Dublin City Libraries, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.

The deadline for receipt of entries is Monday Feb 3rd 2014. There is a €10 entry fee, payable online or by cheque/postal order.

The six short-listed writers will be announced in late May/early June 2014 and the overall winner announced in June 2014.

STINGING FLY - October issue & The Book Show

The new issue of The Stinging Fly dropped through my letterbox today. New stories from Seán O'Reilly, Hugo Kelly, Cathy Sweeney and myself, among others. New poems from Eamon Grennan, Rita Ann Higgins, Geraldine Mitchell and Afric McGlinchey, among many more. Also an essay from Dave Lordan on meeting Dennis O'Driscoll in New York.

My story is called The Boy from Petrópolis and is about Elizabeth Bishop; it was inspired by my trip to Brazil last year.

*

By the way, if you haven't already, you could do worse than listen to the playback of RTÉ Radio 1's new book programme, The Book Show, presented by Sinéad Gleeson. A special hour-long inaugural episode aired on Saturday, including features on Maeve Brennan and George Saunders. It's very good.

DAVY BYRNES AWARD 2014

The Stinging Fly has just confirmed the return of the Davy Byrnes Award in 2014 with three wonderful judges: Anne Enright (the 2004 winner), Yiyun Li and Jon McGregor. There's €15,000 for the best short story, and five runners-up will receive €1000. Closing date is Monday February 3, 2014. €10 entry fee.

A full set of rules and entry forms will be made available in advance of the competition being open for entries in December.

The competition is open to Irish citizens and to residents of the thirty-two counties. Entries must consist of a previously unpublished short story written in English. The maximum word count is 15,000 words, no minimum. Only one story per entrant.

The six short-listed writers will be announced in late May/early June 2014 and the overall winner announced in June 2014.

Time to start writing...

STINGING FLY SUBS OPEN TODAY!

I am at an Irish Studies Conference in beautiful Cácares in Spain at the mo but wanted to let you know that today is the day you can start subbing your stories for The Stinging Fly issue I am editing (Spring 2014). See below for all the details from Fly HQ. I cannot WAIT to read your work!!

Note: Stories for the special flash fiction showcase are only being accepted on one day: 22nd June, which is International Flash Fiction Day.

Note on June 2013 submissions from The Stinging Fly:

Submissions received during June will be read for our Spring 2014 issue.
Nuala Ní Chonchúir is the guest fiction editor for this issue. Read our announcement and what Nuala is looking for here.
As part of her guest editorship Nuala will include a flash fiction showcase. Submissions for the showcase (stories up to 500 words, only one story to be submitted per writer) will be accepted by e-mail only and on one day only: Saturday June 22nd, which is international flash fiction day. We will give further instructions on how to make your submission closer to the time.
All other submissions — poetry, short stories — must be submitted by post in the usual way, following the guidelines below. Please read them.
Writers may submit a story for the flash fiction showcase and submit a second longer story by post.

— — — —

We publish new, previously unpublished work by Irish and international writers. We have a particular interest in promoting the short story. Each issue also includes a mix of poetry, book reviews and essays, alongside occasional author interviews and novel extracts. We welcome submissions of poetry and prose in translation.
Work submitted should ideally not be under consideration elsewhere.
During 2013 The Stinging Fly will accept submissions in February, June and October. We will effectively, from now on, be working two issues in advance. Submissions received in February 2013 will be considered for our October issue (Winter 2013–14); June 2013 submissions will be read for our Spring 2014 issue; October 2013 submissions will be read for our Summer 2014 issue.
The postal address for submissions is: The Stinging Fly, PO Box 6016, Dublin 1, Ireland. We do not accept e-mail submissions.
Each submission should include an e-mail address for reply.
All submissions should be accompanied by a cover letter, which should include:
    * Author’s Name                         * E-mail address and postal address
    * Date of Submission                   * Name of story/poems submitted
    * Brief biographical note, if you wish.
Anyone submitting fiction and poetry should include a separate cover letter with each. All fiction submissions should be printed using 1.5 or double line spacing. Minimum font size: 11pt. Print on one side of the page only. Every piece of work should have the author’s name printed or signed on it.
* No more than one story and/or four poems should be submitted during any one submission period.
* Short stories and poems should always be just as long (or as short) as they need to be. (In our Winter 2012-13 issue the longest story is over 5,000 words; the shortest has less than 600.)
* All submissions are read. The editors’ decision may not be correct but it is final. Allow up to three months (from the end of month in which you submit) for a response to your submission - we will try to respond to everyone (yes or no) within that time.
* With a limited budget, we are only in a position to offer contributors a discretionary token payment. They also receive two copies of the issue in which their work is featured and can order further copies at a discounted rate.
* Copyright remains in all cases with the author. Some work published in the magazine may also be included on our website.
Our Featured Poets
In each issue we publish a number of poems by a poet who is working towards a first collection. In 2013 we will only accept submissions for the Featured Poet slot during the February submission period. To be considered, please send us 6-10 previously unpublished poems. If we want to see more, we will get back to you. If submittng for this slot, do not make a separate poetry submission.
Comhchealg
Is í ‘Comhchealg’ cuid Ghaeilge The Stinging Fly. Cuirtear fáilte roimh phíosaí Gaeilge ó scríbhneoirí úra. Is nós linn aistriúcháin Bhéarla a chur ar fáil i gcás na ndánta a roghnaítear. Chuige sin, déanaimid filí Béarla a chur ag obair ar shaothar a gcomhúdar. Leantar na treoirlínte iarratais thuas a bhaineann le filíocht Bhéarla.
 
Contact Details
The Stinging Fly
PO Box 6016
Dublin 1
Ireland
stingingfly AT gmail dot com

STINGING FLY - FLASH SHOWCASE UPDATE

Update re. flash showcase in The Stinging Fly: Submissions for the showcase (stories up to 500 words, only one story to be submitted per writer) will be accepted by e-mail only and on one day only: Saturday June 22nd, which is international flash fiction day. The Fly will give further instructions on how to make your submission closer to the time. Keep up to date here.

GUEST FICTION EDITOR - STINGING FLY

I am thrilled to be able to announce that I will be guest fiction editor for the spring 2014 issue of super lit mag The Stinging Fly. I am particularly interested in receiving flash fiction/short-shorts up to 500 words. Stories to be submitted in June. More details in this link.

THE STINGING FLY - WINTER 2012

The new Stinging Fly dropped welcomingly (how's that for a horrible, made-up adverb?!) through my letterbox this morning. I am dying to snuggle up with it for a read.

They have changed their subs guides for 2013: they will accept submissions in February, June and October. They will effectively, from now on, be working two issues in advance. So, submissions received in February 2013 will be considered for the October issue (Winter 2013-14); June 2013 submissions will be read for the Spring 2014 issue; October 2013 submissions will be read for the Summer 2014 issue.
The postal address for submissions is: The Stinging Fly, PO Box 6016, Dublin 1, Ireland. They do not accept e-mail submissions. More here.

STINGING FLY NOVEL WORKSHOP

The Stinging Fly lit mag runs this annual workshop and, by all accounts, it's a cracker:

There are only 23 days left to submit applications for The Stinging Fly's innovative novel-writing workshop.

Led by novelist and short story writer, Sean O'Reilly, 'New Way To Fly' is the perfect solution for those in the early stages of writing a novel who feel they will benefit from a relationship with a group of others engaged in the same process.

Under Sean's expert direction, the group will meet once a week in a workshop setting over a six-month period. The ultimate aim is for each participant to complete (yes!) a strong first draft of his/her novel.

Alongside the workshops, there will be a series of specialist talks by guest speakers on several Saturdays over the period. Previous guest speakers have included Chris Binchy, Evelyn Conlon, Mia Gallagher, Michael Harding, Dermot Healy, Christine Dwyer Hickey, Declan Hughes, Emer Martin, Paul Murray, Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Mark O’Halloran, Kevin Power, Ed O’Loughlin and Peter Sheridan.

Participants will be selected on the basis of work submitted.

To apply for the workshop, please send 20-30 pages of your novel, along with a cover letter, to The Stinging Fly, PO Box 6016, Dublin 1.

We will take applications up to August 3rd 2012, though early entry is encouraged as places on the workshop will be offered on a rolling basis.

What past participants say about the workshop:

• "This is an excellent workshop – unique in fact and I have recommended it to other aspiring writers. Sean O’Reilly is an outstanding and unconventional teacher."

• “What is outstanding about this course is the generosity, both in terms of time and close attention, with which every submission was discussed by Sean and the rest of the group.”

• “It’s the best writing course I've done, and I've done a few, including a Masters. Without doubt everybody's work improved during the course – and the work was good to start with.”

• “The Saturday sessions were fascinating. To meet and discuss work with one published writer, let alone ten highly respected and interesting published writers, was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

The details:

Workshop Starts: Monday, September 24th (introductory session)

Times: Twenty weekly workshops on Monday evenings from 6.30pm – 9.30pm at the Irish Writers’ Centre, Parnell Street, Dublin 1. Plus Saturday dates to be agreed.

Cost of workshop: €1500 (A €200 deposit will be payable once a place on the workshop has been offered and accepted. The balance is to be paid in two instalments in September 2012 and in January 2013. Where necessary, a monthly payment plan can be agreed.)

For further details, please email: stingingfly@gmail.com

GUEST BLOG @ STINGING FLY

I am the guest blogger at The Stinging Fly today, Ireland's best literary magazine. (Well, it is!)  My guest post examines the business of being a multiple genre writer, something that is pointed out to me a lot though it is not something I actively think about as a writer. N'anyway, the post is here.

SHORT REVIEW - OCTOBER ISSUE

The October issue of the wonderful Short Review is now live. It includes reviews of The Stinging Fly press anthology Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails; Claire Keegan's Walk the Blue Fields and Vanessa Gebbie's Storm Warning. As always there are author interviews too including one (actually two interviews) with Vanessa here.

An interesting quote from Olivia Heal's review of Claire Keegan's book:

'There is surely something in the Irish voice that is different. The sense of belonging is coupled, perhaps naturally, with one of exile. So, I believe, is the voice. There is a language so deep and undisturbed, an oral tradition almost integral to the people, that it seems to gurgle from the throat much as it might from the land itself. And, there is something else, something that finds its most urgent expression in the writing of Beckett and Joyce, it is a difficulty in sitting comfortably in a language, a refusal of complacency. Perhaps it seems nostalgic to see it thus, but there is something in the attribution of this sensitivity to the fact that the predominant written and spoken language in contemporary Ireland is English, the language of the colonisers.'

GUEST BLOG AT THE IWC #5 & GIVEAWAY

Today is my last day guest blogging at the Irish Writers' Centre blog. And I'm back to novels again. My post 'Novel as Jigsaw' is here.

I also received my contributor's copy as well as my sub copy of the new Stinging Fly today. I have two poems in the issue. To round off my stint at the IWC I am giving away a copy of the Fly over at the IWC blog. Leave a comment over there -not here - to win!  I will post to anywhere in the world.

GREG O'DONOGHUE SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The shortlist for the Gregory O'Donoghue Poetry Competition has been announced by Munster Lit. Congrats to all the listees:

Stephen Beese (North Carolina, USA), 'Death of Alaska'

Marina Blitshteyn (New York, USA), 'Winding the Watch'

Mike Casey (Co. Dublin, Ireland), 'Bulloch Harbour, Winter 09'

Magdalena Cullen (Cork, Ireland), 'Two Things'

Caroline M Davies (Bedfordshire, UK), 'At Sea'

Peggie Gallagher (Sligo, Ireland), 'In Her Later Years'

Noel King (Co. Kerry, Ireland), 'Danger'

Jim Maguire (Wexford, Ireland), 'Water Ghosts'

Michael McKimm (London, UK) 'The Ice Harvest'

Patrick Moran (Co. Tipperary, Ireland), 'So Much'

Tadhg Russell (Co. Cork, Ireland), 'Superstition'

Tadhg Russell (Co. Cork, Ireland), 'The Wood'

KC Trommer (New York, USA), 'First Map'

STINGING FLY REVIEW OF *YOU*

There is a thoughtful, generous review of my novel You in the new Stinging Fly by writer Mia Gallagher (she of the fabulous novel Hellfire).

It's not online but here's a wee flavour: 'Ní Chonchúir's characters jump off the page: arthritic Cora and fat-and-ugly coalman Noel, la-di-dah Auntie Bridget, lumpy, sad Liam. Her language is precise and earthy...she eschews showy descriptions for lived visceral experience.'

I am glowing! Thanks to Mia.

The Fly is the usual mix of poetry and fiction and there's even a graphic story by Kevin Barry illustrated by Alé Mercado. The cover is suitably wintery and in its new bulked up incarnation, the mag feels weighty and looks beautiful. There are plenty of writers I know between the covers: Niamh Bagnell, Grace Wells, Gerard Hanberry etc etc. I look forward to settling down for a good read. (I nearly wrote 'feed'!)

You can buy the mag here.

3 BOOKS FOR XMAS 2009

I can’t keep up with all the fabulous journals, chapbooks and books I get sent/buy/swap. I want to blog about all of them but I’d be here night and day if I did. But I would like to give a swift mention to three that really impressed me lately:



Best Irish Poetry in English 2010, edited by Matthew Sweeney (Southword Editions)

This one is being launched this Wednesday night at 7.30pm in the Munster Literature Centre in Cork with mulled wine, candlelight and mince pies. Oh, how I wish I could be there. Matthew Sweeney is an excellent Irish poet with an eye for the quirky, the absurd and the moving. This is reflected in many of his choices in this handsome production which is an annual event from Southword Editions. He writes a cracking, honest editorial too.
Poets include Séamus Heaney, Leontia Flynn and Kerry Hardie. I even have a poem in there – so proud! Special price of €10 from the site with free P&P within Ireland.
Buy here.


Round the Clock – Christodoulos Makris (Wurm Press)

A poet from Cyprus based in Ireland, Christodoulos Makris writes witty, extraordinary work. This is a chapbook from Wurm Press, described in a review as ‘a controlled explosion of twelve poems that reveal inner prepossessions and fiery confrontations to self, and country. They are charged with desire and a powerful will...’
I was knocked out by the skill of this writer; he deserves to be taken up by one of our good/big poetry publishing houses. In the meantime you can buy this chapbook from his blog, yes but is it poetry?, or indeed exchange it for a book of your own if you are a writer.


Davy Byrnes Stories – as selected by Richard Ford (Stinging Fly Press)

This includes the five shortlisted and one winning story from the recent Davy Byrnes Short Story competition which was administered by The Stinging Fly. Claire Keegan was the eventual winner with her fine story ‘Foster’. It is vintage Claire: it's rural, and concerns a young girl and a background tragedy. It has beautiful detail and the sparse dialogue is pitch perfect.
All of the stories are good, of course - some I enjoyed more than others. Kathleen Murray’s ‘Storm Glass’ is beautifully layered and it plays with the notion of truth and memory and family secrets. It is gentle and gorgeously well written.
What is nice too is that each writer introduces their story with a short piece on its genesis. Fascinating.
Buy here for €10 which includes P&P.

THE STINGING FLY WANTS YOU!

Here's a chance to join the line-up for one of THE STINGING FLY'S planned readings at the Irish Writers' Centre this July.

The Stinging Fly is organising three readings in July at the Irish Writers' Centre on Parnell Square. The final reading, on July 23rd, will feature six writers reading alongside Michael J. Farrell, author of the recently published story collection Life in the Universe.

To be one of those six writers you need to apply as follows:

Please submit 3 pages of prose (double spaced) or 3 poems to
readings.stingingfly@gmail.com

Submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m on Thursday 25 June.

Only e-mailed submissions will be accepted.

They will choose three poets and three prose writers, and notify them by 9 July.

Writers who have never before read in front of an audience are encouraged to submit.

The three readings take place at 7 p.m on three consecutive Thursdays - July 9th, 16th and 23rd. We'll have more details on the series by early next week.

LIBERTY HALL TV DOCU - TONIGHT

There's an excellent documentary by Paddy Cahill about the iconic Liberty Hall in Dublin on RTÉ 1 TV at 8.30pm tonight. Liberty Hall may or may not be in danger of being demolished - the jury appears to be out still on this, thank God. I would hate to see it go.

I used Paddy's programme and his (and others') articles from The Dubliner magazine as inspiration and research for the collaborative poems I wrote with artist Cora Cummins for Marks.

Here's one of my poems from Marks, the Circa / Stinging Fly collaboration:


GULL

On the rooftop of this urban aurora,
a gull, strayed up from a squat Martello,
shapes her eyes to the view:

a ballet of cranes, vying for space,
swinging down on the bay’s skyline

green trains darting to Howth, Bray,
and less lofty points between

the bridges that bracelet the river,
each named for a different man

copper domes and yellow buses,
the slender finger of the Spire.

She beaks the air and lets fly.

STINGING FLY - Spring 09 Issue

The brand new Stinging Fly arrived today in my letterbox. I have a piece in it about First Drafts, as have Colette Bryce, Mia Gallagher, Dermot Healy, Philip Ó Ceallaigh and Peter Sirr.

Monica Corish is the featured poet and there is plenty of new fiction and poetry from the likes of Alan McMonagle, Máiríde Woods, Gerry Murphy, Michael O'Loughlin, Matthew Sweeney and Paula Meehan.

Dubliner Orlaith O'Sullivan is named as the recipient of this year's Stinging Fly Prize and, in her report, judge Sinéad Morrissey had plenty of good general and specific things to say about writing, including the following:

"In the end, I had to place the question of genre to one side, as much as it was possible to do so, and establish, or re-establish, basic, fundamental characteristics of excellent writing. Surprise became the defining factor. I wanted to find work which took me by surprise, which deepened upon subsequent readings, and which was deft enough in the deployment of its own rules that they had been internalised, rendered invisible by the creative momentum they allowed."

Read her full report on Orlaith's achievement HERE.

FRANK O'CONNOR FESTIVAL

Frank O'Connor was born this day in 1903.

Tonight the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival kicks off in Cork with the launch of The Stinging Fly's latest anthology at Triskel Arts Centre at 7pm. Followed by a reading by 2005 Frank O'Connor Award winner, Yiyun Li.

I'll be at the festival for the next five days, so I will report on it when I'm back next week. Until then, slán go fóill!

ELECTRIC PICNIC - LIT EVENTS 2

ANNE ENRIGHT, ELECTRIC PICNIC READING & INTERVIEW

We were up with the lark on Sunday morning, wandering about, enjoying the calm and quiet main area – most others were still tent-bound. At half twelve Anne Enright and Claire Keegan were to read and discuss the short story with Declan Meade of the Stinging Fly, in the Arts Council tent. Claire couldn’t make it, so we had more of Anne. She spoke frankly and honestly about her writing life, as always, and she read two stories from Taking Pictures, the one about organic farming (title escapes me & I'm too agitated with computers/the net just now to go and check) and 'Shaft'.

Anne said ‘The short story is an instinctive form’. I agree with that and I’d also say that non-short fiction writers (pure novelists) often don’t ‘get’ that. She also called it ‘a modest, unassuming form’. She said she doesn’t do plot (yay!) as life is plotless and more of a story. She said that her narrators are always unsure about what happens in the same way she herself is unsure about what will happen in life or a given situation.
‘You’re just writing sentences,’ Anne said. ‘See where it goes.’
At the Q&A someone mentioned that she often writes in the first person and she said that she’s just not very good at the third person; that when she writes it, she writes a ‘close’ third person.

Again, feeling that it’s nice for a writer to be asked a few questions, I asked if she ever writes historical short stories. ‘Not so far,’ she said, but she’d like to try it. She also said she is writing a new novel but refused to say what it’s about. She kind of cheekily told Declan it was ‘an impertinent question’ when he asked. It’s a good policy. I have a sign on my notice board that says: ‘The story you’re writing is a secret’, to stop me talking the good out of it. I’m guessing it’s the same for most writers. They want to keep the thing to themselves until it reaches a point where it seems to be going OK.

All in all, she’s a very good interviewee: funny and honest and irreverent. It was a great event.