Return to normal?

Back on the air... I think I'm done with death and the research thereof for a while :-)

Super-social weekend, with delightful friends staying, and fab dinners, and fizzy, and birthdays, and sunshiney pints, and cake, and coffee, and buttermilk pancakes, and late pints, and all manner of treaty things. Concerted effort to get back to normal life today.

So, this Thursday I'm doing a reading at the Irish Writers' Centre in Dublin. This afternoon has been about sorting out what and how much to read, and editing away to make sure the prose is buffed and polished...

Actually, technically speaking, the afternoon's been about Thursday's reading and washing floors. Because nothing says regular life like 'I should really clean that up...'



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Full details about Thursday's reading:

The Stinging Fly Summer Readings Series

7:00 at the Irish Writers' Centre (19 Parnell Square)

Admission €5, which can be used towards any Stinging Fly publication or subscription

16 July: Readings by Featured Poet Richard Halperin (Summer ’09), Alison MacLeod (Summer ’09), Adam Marek, and 2008 Stinging Fly Prize winner Orlaith O’Sullivan. Musical guest Monica Harkin.

The Stinging Fly has worked since 1997 to publish and promote the best new Irish and international writing. We publish three issues per year, available in February, June and October. The Stinging Fly Press imprint was launched in May 2005 with the publication of our first title, Watermark by Sean O'Reilly. The imprint is dedicated to publishing the very best new fiction, and like the magazine, it is particularly interested in promoting the short story. Publications include Rooney Prize Winner Kevin Barry’s There are Little Kingdoms, as well as two anthologies of short stories, These are Our Lives and Let’s Be Alone Together. The latest publication is Michael J Farrell’s highly praised debut short story collection, Life in the Universe. If you are interested in supporting the magazine, you can become a patron by visiting our website, stingingfly.org.

About the writers:

Richard W. Halperin lives in Paris. Since 2005, over seventy of his poems have appeared in journals in Ireland, England, and Scotland. He has given readings at Glencree Centre for Reconciliation, Glenstal Abbey and the Live Poets Society (Paris). A first collection, Anniversary, is in the works. Formerly, he headed UNESCO’s teacher education programme.

Alison MacLeod has published two novels, The Changeling (1996) The Wave Theory of Angels(2005). Her short stories collection, Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction, was published in 2007. In 2008 she was the recipient of the Society of Authors’ Olive Cook Award for Short Fiction. She is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at the University of Chichester and teaches on the MA programme in Creative Writing. (alison-macleod.com)

Adam Marek’s short story collection, Instruction manual for swallowing, was published by Comma Press in 2007, and was described in The Guardian as a 'transgressive thrill to read' and The Independent as showing a 'genuine unsettling talent'. His stories have also appeared in Prospect magazine and in anthologies including When it changed, Parenthesis and The new uncanny from Comma Press, two Bridport Prize collections and the British Council’s New Writing 15. He is working on his first novel.

Orlaith O’Sullivan was named as the winner of the Stinging Fly Prize for 2008 for ‘A Tall Tale’ which appeared in Issue 10 Volume Two (Summer 2008) of the magazine. She is an award-winning writer with a PhD in Renaissance literature. She has recently relocated from Madeira to West Cork, where she is working on the thriller Mortal Treasures. (orlaithosullivan.com)

Music by:

Monica Harkin and piano player Michael Allen have been playing together since late 2007. Earlier this year they recorded some songs with doublebass player Ciaran Broughan and the latest recruits are Aaron on drums, Dave on the guitar and Oisín on the viola. (myspace.com/monicaharkin)

New Writers...New Writing