Declan Meade in The Irish Times by Eileen Battersby

‘Editing is my natural role’

Declan Meade has made it his business to find our finest writers, and his 15 years at The Stinging Fly make for formidable reading .

Read Eileen Battersby on Declan Meade -Irish Times

The Stinging Fly

Top five discoveries

1 Claire Keegan’s Foster was initially written for the second Davy Byrne’s short-story competition, organised by Meade in 2009. The story was subsequently published in the New Yorker and later in an extended version by Faber & Faber.

2 Kevin Barry’s subversive and astute debut collection, There Are Little Kingdoms (2007), evolved from Meade’s suggestion that Barry get some stories together “and maybe we’ll publish a book”. The rest, as they say, is history.

3 Watermark (2005), the daring novella by Sean O’Reilly, launched The Stinging Fly imprint.

4 The New York edition, issue 20,
volume 2; Winter 2011, includes Keith Ridgway’s story Andy Warhol; Evelyn Conlon’s celebration of the late Grace Paley; Mary Morrissy’s essay on Maeve Brennan; and other original work inspired by that city.

5 Mary Costello’s finely-crafted debut collection, The China Factory (2012), was long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award.