Reviewer score
To mark its reigning year as European Capital of Culture,
The Stinging Fly invited writers established and new to submit work inspired by the City of the Tribes. The result is this Galway-themed edition with Lisa McInerney (
The Glorious Heresies) at the helm and Elaine Feeney (
As You Were) as poetry editor.
In her introduction, Lisa McInerney writes that Galway is more complex than its popular image.’ We can take it then that this collection intends to reflect on that very complexity. Galway is frequently romanticised, and not just from the outside.
It’s long been a magnet for creative types, seen as somewhat bohemian and ‘studenty’, a destination of choice for hen and stag parties, and the last bastion of civilisation before the wilds of Connemara. The miscellany of writing here however shows that the traditional associations don’t sufficiently sum up the city anymore, either in concept or reality, if indeed they ever did.
Multimedia Journalist
Irish fiction continues to thrive and the year ahead offers a feast of novels and short story collections set for publication - we present a choice selection.
Danielle McLaughlin -
The Art of Falling (John Murray, February)
A woman s marriage and career are threatened by an old indiscretion just as she receives the opportunity of a lifetime. Danielle s stories have appeared in
The New Yorker, The Irish Times and
The Stinging Fly, amongst numerous other magazines and anthologies. She has won many awards for her short fiction, collected in
Dinosaurs on Other Planets.
The Art of Falling will be published in January 2021 by Random House in the US
Books to look out for in 2021
Irish fiction
New work that has been a long time coming generates a particular shiver of anticipation.
Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Her publisher says: “An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgment.” Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Photograph: Alan Betson