Wednesday, June 3, 2009

News from The Stinging Fly

Hello everyone,The shortlist for the 2009 Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award will be announced on Saturday in The Irish Times.Over 800 stories were entered for the competition and we are now down to the final six. The six winning writers have been notified.The overall winner of the €25,000 prize will be announced on Monday June 22nd. The five remaining shortlisted writers will receive €1000 each.Thanks are due to all who entered to the competition and to Redmond Doran of Davy Byrnes for his very generous sponsorship. While the six shortlisted writers are clearly the main beneficiaries, the Award represents a great boost to the short story itself - encouraging people to write short stories, to read them and to celebrate them.It's very fitting that the overall winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award will be announced in the same week that Alice Munro will be in Dublin to receive the Man Booker International Prize.Onwards and upwards...Declan-- Declan MeadePublisher/EditorThe Stinging FlyPO Box 6016Dublin 8 Ireland

I really like short stories I think they are sometimes underated and often overlooked so I am delighted that short story writer, Alice Munro ,has won The Man Booker International prize.The stinging fly http://www.stingingfly.org/ under the auspices of Declan Meade does trojan work in promoting the short story and is one of my favourite magazines (it and The SHOp are the only 2 mags I HAVE to buy despite the poetry in the fly often not really floating my boat ) It also showcases new photographers and illustrators which is great. The New Yorker Magazine website http://www.newyorker.com/ has some great stories to listen to on their podcasts .Try out 'Bullet in the brain' by Tobias Wolff to see how good a short story can be http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/02/11/080211on_audio_boyle and let me know what you think.

15 comments:

Heather said...

I am not attracted to short stories though it must be much harder to satisfactorily complete an idea in such a short span. I like to get to know the characters in a story and want to hang on to them for a whole bookworth. I feel deprived if it all ends too soon.

Kat Mortensen said...

I haven't read many current short stories, but some of my favourite works are short stories I read in school. There's a Canadian one called, "One's a Heifer" that is downright bone-chilling and I'll never forget "Leiningen versus the Ants" or "The Monkey's Paw", and what's that one they made into a movie about the game-hunter who traps people and hunts them on his island. Anyone?


Kat

Kat Mortensen said...

"The Most Dangerous Game". That's it.

Kat

Niamh B said...

When you say the 6 winning writers have been notified, does that include absolutely all 6 of them? And did they get talking to the person in person, or did they just leave a voicemail? or is it in the post? cos you know these things can get misplaced, and it'd be just so embarrassing for them if I didn't know and planned something else for the weekend of the awards ceremony...
Ah hell, I'm not getting 25K am I?

Totalfeckineejit said...

I know what you feel Heather,short stories are a different species altogether,I suppose and maybe not to everyone's taste.Did you try the tobias Wolff one yet? If not report to me after school :)

Hey Kat ,I haven't read any of them,I'm a recent convert to the short story through buying the stinging fly .'One's a Heifer' -'the other one's a looker' as they say in Mullingar.Actually they don't I just made that up for no reason at all.

Mrs. Niamh,yep,yes,no,noo and nope.According to Deko , I was 7th and you were 8th (from last)."5k though,can ye imagine how many cabbages could be bought with that!

Totalfeckineejit said...

That should of course be 25k not
"5k.
If you glance at your keyboards you will notice that 2 and " are on the same key and this was clearly the cause of my downfall in my first effort to write 25k.Case closed Dr Finlay.

Niamh B said...

It's the heat... scrambling our poor little heads - that's it.

Group 8 said...

And I thought I was in with a chance. Boo hoo. Still, It will be interesting to see on Saturday who is on the shortlist. I love all that.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Yes indeed ,WRW, it is interesting, particularly with so much cash and kudos involved. Wonder will it be anyone we know? For once I'm not disappointed-I didn't enter for two small reasons a) I didn't have a tenner and b) I didn't have a short story.Will give it a crack next time though.Ps. Hope Juno is a happy little babby!

Heather said...

Thanks for leaving such a nice comment on my blog TF - it does look like old carved wood and I hope it has a sort of Viking feel. By the way - have you been good today and been to the polling station?!!!

Heather said...

I'm afraid it's me again - I shall have to be kept in after school as I couldn't access the Tobias Wolff short story. Black mark for that as well as my poor computer skills. I should never have let Mad Aunt Bernard leave home - she teaches me all I need to know about computers.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I agree about short stories, although they are not always easy to find. I love the Maupassant ones and the Somerset Maugham ones (that dates me, doesn't it) but some of the "modern" ones I find hard to understand - I confess to liking a beginning, a middle and an end. Is that revolutionary talk these days? Thanks for your comments on my poetry!

Totalfeckineejit said...

You're welcome Heather, and yes the faces in your wunderbar creation look very vikingyee.I was very good today and managed to find some worthy candidates to vote for-good luck to them! No Wolff hey ,young Miss, double homework for you next week!


Hello Weaver, I too like a beginning ,middle and end, but not necessarily in that order :) I am such a poor reader and must confess to never having read somerset Maugham (great name n'est ce pas) but was forced to try to read a bit of Guy de M on some of the few daze I was at Skool, the trauma of which (oh there were so many) is still with me to this day. So despite not a word of his understood ,let alone learned, his name is burned into the soft tissue of my memory.All of which of course speaks more about my skooling than it does of the probably great writing of the gallic one. Your poetry is excello !

Kat Mortensen said...

TFE - I've tagged you for a meme, if you're up for it.

Kat

Totalfeckineejit said...

Thanks Kat I'll give it a lash when I can think straight!