Essays & stuff I don't want to forget

I’ve had no less than four stories in The Stinging Fly over the years. Big thanks to Declan Meade for being a thoughtful editor and for bringing readers so many interesting new stories over the years.
So now I’m delighted to have a story in this anthology to celebrate 20 years of The Stinging Fly.

The ‘stinging fly’ of the title is an allusion to a passage in Socrates’ defence speech in court where he was charged with impiety.

” I was attached to this city by the god — though it seems a ridiculous thing to say — as upon a great and noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly. It is to fulfill some such function that I believe the god has placed me in the city. I never cease to rouse each and every one of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long and everywhere I find myself in your company.”

My story Contract was chosen for #StorySunday in London’s fantastic Litro magazine in Dec 2016.

Click the link here to go to the story. (I love old-skool internet days.)

Contract

…. Clives tries desperately to fit in with the caring & whimsical atmosphere of his new office job

Mike McCormack and myself are teaming up for a mini-tour of London, with two dates signed up at bookshops.
I’m immensely grateful to Anthony Cartwright for playing a key role in instigating the readings. His own fourth novel, Iron Towns, came out in May.

Anthony will be discussing the books with us on the nights:

• Tues August 2nd 7:30 pm at Bookseller Crow on the Hill, Crystal Palace
• Wed August 3rd 7:00pm at The Quaker Bookshop, Friends House,, Euston Road 173-177

Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from Mayo. His previous work includes Getting it in the Head (1995), Notes from a Coma (2005), which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award, and Forensic Songs (2012). In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and in 2007 he was awarded a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship.
His latest novel Solar Bones came out recently.

Anthony Cartwright has worked in factories, meatpacking plants, pubs and warehouses and with London Underground. His debut novel, The Afterglow won much acclaim – and a Betty Trask Award in 2004. His second novel, Heartland, was published by Tindal Street in May 2009 and praised by Jonathan Coe, David Peace, Catherine O’Flynn and DJ Taylor amongst many others. It was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was a Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4. How I Killed Margaret Thatcher, a bitter-sweet comic novel that captures the intensity of early 1980s Britain through the eyes of an unusual 9 year old Black Country boy, was published in 2012. His latest novel is Iron Towns.

I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Anthony Cartwright for taking an interest in the book and proposing the readings to bookshops he knows. I don’t know Anthony personally and have never met him, so it all came as a great surprise to receive such a boost out of the blue. I hope to equalise the debt – and I don’t mean by endless FB postings recommending Anthony’s books.
I hope one day to pass on the goodwill and be able to offer a debut writer whose book I have admired (perhaps one that hasn’t a big PR campaign behind it), an unexpected helping hand.

Absolutely thrilled to have received an invitation to the West Cork Literary Festival!!! My spot is on Tuesday, July 19th.

Looking forward to running into lots of newer writers such as Caitriona Lally, Gavin McCrea, Danielle McLaughlin, Tom Morris, Lisa McInerney, Joanna Walsh, and Paul McVeigh plus some of the more established writers such as John Banville, Lia Mills, and Zadie Smith. (Just to pick out a few I’m familiar with, there are lots more on the programme).

It’s in Bantry, Co. Cork, from July 17th – 23rd. Full programme here

“From the outside we speak of ‘characters’ with characteristics more or less fixed. But from the inside there is only the world.”
The first interview about my debut short story collection Greetings Hero. With poet & journalist Joe Horgan.

In this issue of The Honest Ulsterman.