We are now officially into our summer events programme, the inaugural event of which was the launch of our Summer 2026 issue last Saturday at International Literature Festival Dublin.
In this week’s newsletter, the excitement continues.
We share snippets from the magazine launch elegantly captured by Dublin-based photographer Patrick Fleming. We release the full announcement of the 2026 winner of The Stinging Fly/FBA Fiction Prize, Rosa Mäkelä, whose winning story ‘Breathwork’ is now available to read on our website.
Following the subscription discount from last week, we come bearing more gifts! Our new partners on this year's FBA Fiction Prize, The Mill: a creative retreat centre in France, are offering a special discount code exclusively for our readers to book a stay with them.
Our summer events programme proceeds with the next event in our Second Tuesday Series. On Tuesday 9 June Danielle McLaughlin and Caitriona Lally will join publisher Declan Meade in conversation about their recent books and writing lives. After that, on Thursday 11 June Danielle heads off to Belfast Book Festival in her camper van to talk all things Rituals with author Bernie McGill.
Finally, we welcome the announcement of Every One Still Here as a finalist for The 2026 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Keep reading to learn more... | | |
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| Rosa Mäkelä wins The Stinging Fly/FBA Fiction Prize 2026 | | |
| We are delighted to announce that Rosa Mäkelä is the 2026 winner of The Stinging Fly/FBA Fiction Prize. Established in 2022, the €2000 prize, sponsored by Felicity Bryan Associates, is awarded annually to an emerging fiction writer published in The Stinging Fly during the previous year. This year we are also delighted to include a week long residency at The Mill, a writing retreat giving writers the opportunity to focus on their work in the beautiful environs of rural France.
Rosa’s winning story, ‘Breathwork’ appeared in Issue 52 Volume Two, published in May 2025. Rosa was announced as the winner of the award at the launch event for our Summer 2026 issue at the International Literature Festival Dublin on Saturday 16 May.
Rosa is a writer from County Galway. Her stories have been published in The Pig’s Back, Banshee and Channel. In 2025 her writing was long-listed for the Deborah Rogers Award.
Judging the 2026 prize were novelist and short story writer Yan Ge (Strange Beasts of China), Stinging Fly contributing editor and author Danny Denton (All Along The Echo) and FBA agent, Carrie Plitt. The panel was chaired by our programme manager, Eoin Rogers.
The judges highly commended two other stories: ‘The Road Trip’ by Jazelle Jajeh and ‘Temporary’ by Odrán Waldron both from Issue 52 Volume Two.
‘Breathwork’ is now available to read on our website. | | |
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| The Mill France: Creative Retreat Exclusive Discount | | |
| To mark the announcement of the winner of this year's Stinging Fly/ FBA Fiction Prize, The Mill is extending its generosity to our community.
Nathalie Edwards, founder of The Mill, is offering a special 10% discount on bookings exclusively for any of our readers yearning for a creative retreat.
Simply enter the coupon code when booking your stay on The Mill's website to claim your discount.
Coupon Code:
StingingFly10
The discount is available to use now.
About The Mill:
The Mill France: A Centre for Community, Connection & Creativity.
The Mill sits on the banks of the River Cernon, within the Causses & Cévennes UNESCO World Heritage site. Surrounded by dramatic limestone plateaus and rolling valleys, it lies in the heart of the Aveyron region. While honouring its history dating back before 1735, The Mill France was founded in 2018. It has been transformed into a haven for writers, artists, potters, and creatives from around the world. Many return regularly to take part in residencies, retreats, and specialist pottery courses, making it a vibrant centre for inspiration, creativity, connection, and often much-needed rest, set amidst breathtaking landscapes.
What's on offer at The Mill:
- Week-long self-guided writers retreats (fully catered except for 2 x evening meals) (including the upcoming writers retreat with Mariel Hacking at the end of July)
- Week-long creative getaways alongside various renowned artists - also fully catered as above
Please note that the discount can not be applied to the Artists & Writers Residency Programme / longer stays of over 1–4 weeks.
Facilities at The Mill:
- The Flour store - The Artist's studio space
- The Piggery - Our light and airy Ceramic & Print Studio with the much-loved Albion Printing Press
- The Library - our quiet, wifi-free space
- Salon - with a projector for film nights
- High-speed Wifi
- Access to the river for wild water swims
- Outdoor spaces to create/ relax/ paint/ write/ snooze
- We have hiking trails available directly accessed from The Mill
- Trains and buses to the local Market Town of Millau
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| Summer 2026 Issue Launch Photos | | |
| Thank you to everyone who came along to celebrate the launch of our Summer 2026 issue as part of International Literature Festival Dublin. We had a fantastic evening full of lively music, readings and conversation. We were glad to celebrate the Summer 2026 issue with old friends and meet new contributors. We are grateful particularly to the writers who read brilliantly from their work in the issue on the night: Lauren Collett, Eleanor Hooker, Luke Morgan, Eva Morrissey, William Brady, and Alan McMonagle.
Many thanks to music journalist Siobhán Kane, whose eclectic DJ set curated in response to our cover artist Diarmuid Breen’s evocative painting, set the right tone for the evening.
The Stinging Fly’s share of the ticket sales from the event will be donated to Hometree, a charity that works to establish and conserve permanent native woodland in Ireland, encouraging land regeneration and biodiversity through afforestation, restoration and education. You can order the new Summer 2026 issue from our online shop. Launch photographs by Patrick Fleming. See more on our Instagram page. | | |
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| Danielle McLaughlin & Caitriona Lally in conversation with Declan Meade | | |
| We are delighted to announce details of the next event in our Second Tuesday Series, a series of online events taking place on the second Tuesday of every month. The series is intended to offer writers a space to gather, share their experiences, and learn from one another.
On Tuesday 9 June, writers Danielle McLaughlin and Caitriona Lally will join publisher Declan Meade to discuss their recent books and writing life.
This is a free event taking place online. The event will run from 7pm to 8.15pm via zoom. Registration is required for all to attend. Please register at the link below.
Writers' Bios:
Danielle McLaughlin is the author of the short-story collection, Dinosaurs on Other Planets, which won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for fiction and the Sunday Times Short Story Award; and the novel, The Art of Falling, which was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. She has been Writer in Residence at University College Cork and Visiting Writer Fellow at the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College, Dublin. She has also designed and delivered workshops in Creative Writing for various organisations and festivals and currently mentors a number of emerging writers. Her novel Rituals was published by The Stinging Fly Press in April 2026.
Caitriona Lally has published two novels, Eggshells (2015) and Wunderland (2021). She won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2018 and a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction in 2019. She was the inaugural Rooney Writer Fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub in 2022, and was one of the 2024 New Voices 20 Best New Irish Writers. Her first memoir, Home Economics, was recently published by New Island. | | |
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| Danielle McLaughlin's Rituals at Belfast Book Festival | | |
| We are delighted to share the news that the award-winning writer Danielle McLaughlin will be participating in the Belfast Book Festival this summer.
On Thursday 11 June, Danielle will be joining author Bernie McGill to discuss her new novel Rituals.
Rituals is a tender, funny book about an obsessive mind – and the bravery involved in opening our hearts to change.
The event will take place from 7.30pm to 9pm at the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast. Tickets are available at a sliding scale, starting from as little as £5. | | |
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| The Orwell Prize 2026 Finalists | | |
| Last week, Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn was announced as a finalist for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2026.
The original edition of the book was published in March 2025 by The Stinging Fly Press, and a new paperback edition was released earlier this year. The brilliant debut collection of short stories by the young writer has since been published in the UK by Granta and in the US from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG).
“I was gripped by Every One Still Here. I loved the daring of its wrought metaphors; its taut, pitch-perfect dialogue; its haunting attention to the power of silence and of things left unsaid. I especially admired the ways in which each individual story conjures a highly distinctive but often elusive voice, involving the reader in the attempt to make sense of each character’s personal and familial histories – histories which emerge as subtly political even when they are not outrightly, traumatically so.”
– A statement from the 2026 Orwell Prize judges
The winner will be revealed on Thursday 25 June on The Orwell Foundation website.
In 2025, Every One Still Here was shortlisted for the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year in the 2025 An Post Irish Book Awards. This March, it was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award, the most influential prize for young writers in the UK and Ireland.
Liadan Ní Chuinn is a writer from the north of Ireland. Their writing has been published in The Stinging Fly and Granta. Every One Still Here is their first book. | | |
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| | | | You can support all our work by becoming a Friend of The Fly
Friends of The Fly help to support all of the work that we do: not only our publications but also our writer development programme, which offers opportunities for new and emerging writers to hone their craft via mentorships, seminars and workshops.
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What did you think of this week’s newsletter? If there’s anything else you’d like to see more of in the following editions please let us know! We always appreciate feedback. You can reach us at communi...@stingingfly.org |
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| | The Stinging Fly gratefully acknowledges the support it receives from The Arts Council/ An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the T.S. Eliot Foundation. |
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