The Stinging Fly is inviting visual artists living on the island of Ireland to submit work to be considered for future covers of our magazine. We are keen to discover new artists through this call-out. As such this opportunity is only open to artists who have not yet had work featured on one of our covers.
Submissions are now closed. Interested artists will be able send us their work through Submittable during this time.
We were delighted by the response to our last call-out for artwork in July 2023, through which we found cover artwork for four of our issues:
Issue 49/Volume Two: Winter 2023–24 | Artwork by Katie Davenport
Issue 50/Volume Two: Summer 2024 | Artwork by Hugh O’Conor
Issue 51/Volume Two: Winter 2024–25 | Artwork by Hazel Coonagh
Issue 52/Volume Two: Summer 2025 | Artwork by Ronan McCall
Our two most recent magazine covers were found during a field-trip last year to the 195th RHA Annual Exhibition where we encountered the work of Robert Ryan, whose painting ‘The Conversation’ features on our climate issue cover, and Diarmuid Breen, who has provided ‘The Excursion’ for our upcoming Summer 2026 issue.
We’ve been publishing new writers and new writing for the past twenty-eight years, and we are proud to have featured the work of many inspiring and innovative visual artists, photographers and designers on our 72 issue covers. You can see all our beautiful issue covers here. It’s a diverse spread—you will see that there is no one style, tone or medium we are drawn to. Each cover is vibrant, striking, and representative of the soul and calibre of the writing on the pages inside.
We are not seeking artwork produced to any particular theme. We’re excited to find existing pieces that are fresh, striking, and specific to the artist’s personal style and approach. What excites you will also – hopefully – excite us.
We invite artists to put forward up to three images for consideration.
Artists must be over 18 and live on the island of Ireland.
Our cover artists receive payment of 500 euro.
Please note that the deadline is 5pm (Irish Time) on Monday May 11th.