We’re very pleased to announce that our next issue, Summer 2019, will be guest edited by Danny Denton. Submissions for this issue will open on December 3rd and close on January 9th – full details can be found on the submissions page.
Danny Denton is a writer from Cork. His first novel, The Earlie King & The Kid In Yellow, was published by Granta Books in February 2018. His work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Southword, Granta, Winter Papers, Tate, Etc, The Guardian, The Irish Times, Architecture Ireland & The Big Issue, among others. He is currently writer-in-residence for Cork County Libraries.
Here’s what Danny had to say about his hopes for the issue:
I first submitted a story to The Stinging Fly on February 1st, 2006. Two stories actually. Both pretty poor. I got the standard rejection and, sometime later, a more encouraging rejection, for another story again. Since those first submissions, and first readings, the Fly has been, for me, an Irish gatekeeper for quality literature. We live in a troubled world; it often feels like the place is falling apart around us. Reading can act as a guide in that environment, or as a beacon, or as a safe haven. The Fly has been each of those things for me, and more, right up to this wonderful Winter 2018 issue. While continuing to publish outstanding work, the Fly has also reserved an ear for new voices (like mine, ages ago), and I am humbled and excited and more than a little terrified about stepping in for an issue and working to maintain this balance of new and established, wondrous and relevant.
Declan reminded us in an editorial a couple of years ago that he still sought work that would provoke reaction and stir debate, that engaged with social and political issues. Sally expertly elaborates on the ‘political’ in literature in her editorial for the current issue. I’m no different in my thoughts and hopes, and with these tenets as kind of a node system for me, I aim to continue publishing the best work we can find. I’d consider myself as having a taste for the innovative, or for work that challenges conventions (be they literary, social or whatever else); however, it’s probably more accurate to say that I aim, simply, to publish work that does something to my gut, or to my brain, or to my heart. In myth, Oscar asked Fionn mac Cumhaill, What is the music you best like in the world? Fionn answered: The music of what happens. I want to say the same thing about the literature I best like. I can’t wait to start reading submissions, having conversations about projects, and getting down to work.