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Beautiful Animals: Theorising and Defining the Short Story (In Under 1000 Words) Jun 2

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Stinging Fly Editorial Statement: A Tingling Pleasure Feb 25

The Stinging Fly magazine was established in 1997 to seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing.

We believe that there is a need for a magazine that, first and foremost, gives new and emerging writers an opportunity to get their work out into the world. We are particularly concerned to provide an outlet for short story writers: each issue features several short stories and we also devote entire issues to new fiction when the mood takes us.

The first issue appeared in March 1998. It was edited by founding editors Aoife Kavanagh and Declan Meade, and consisted of 28 A4 pages with five short stories and about twenty poems. In 2000 we introduced an author interview slot to the magazine, and in 2001 Eabhan Ní Shúileabháin became poetry editor and we incorporated book reviews into the magazine. In 2004 we toyed with the idea of giving it all up, but in 2005 came shuffling back with the first issue of a new volume.

Over the years The Stinging Fly has published new work by a number of highly acclaimed Irish and international writers: people like Simon Armitage, Philip Casey, Emma Donoghue, Eamon Grennan, Kerry Hardie, Michael Harding, Claire Keegan, James Kelman, A.L. Kennedy, Toby Litt, Medbh McGuckian, Paula Meehan, Sinéad Morrissey, Philip Ó Ceallaigh, Dennis O’Driscoll, Sharon Olds, Keith Ridgway and C.K. Stead.

We remain convinced, however, that The Stinging Fly’s lasting contribution will be the opportunities it continues to give to new writers.

We publish three issues of the magazine each year. Submission guidelines can be found here.

The Stinging Fly Press

         

The Stinging Fly Press imprint was launched in May 2005 with the publication of our first title, Watermark by Sean O’Reilly. Like the magazine, the imprint is dedicated to publishing the very best new Irish literary fiction, and is particularly interested in promoting the short story.

In 2007 we published the Rooney Prize-winning short story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms by Kevin Barry, and in 2009, Life in The Universe by Michael J. Farrell. We published the highly-acclaimed The China Factory by Mary Costello in 2012, and our latest book is Young Skins by Colin Barrett (September 2013). In addition to these titles, we have published a number of short story anthologies.

http://www.stingingfly.org/