Padhraig Nolan's Blog

Let's be alone together... at Crawdaddy

Went along to Crawdaddy last night for the Dublin launch of the new Stinging Fly short story anthology 'Let's be alone together'. And a very well attended occasion it was, too - more writers than you could shake an empty biro at. Over the course of a few hours (and bevvies) we heard nine(!) of the featured writers read their stories, or extracts in some cases. Judging by this not-so-small selection from the book's twenty stories, the anthology is fizzing with quality! Can't wait for my commute to explore a few more! There's an Ingo Schulze story in there that I'll be heading straight for, I think.

Of the readers on the night, Emer Martin's story 'Thieves of the Dream', about a mixed-nationality californian family coming under the post 9/11 glare, was a highlight for me. Helena Nolan's a busy woman these days. She introduced her story 'A Hares' Nest' as being born from a dream - while admitting 'we're not supposed to write about those' - why? To do so is 'a cliche' apparently. If only every cliche was written this elegantly! Mia Gallagher gave a dramatic reading from her story 'Pollyfilla', where an architect stumbles into confrontation, despite himself. Evelyn Conlon, Colm Liddy, Rosemary Jenkinson, Dónal O'Sullivan, James Lawless and Gina Moxley also read excellently - each adding further to the enjoyment of the enthusiastic crowd.

This is the first Stinging Fly event I've made it too - to date they've always clashed with some prior commitment. Kudos to Declan Meade & colleagues for putting on a great evening - very inspirational for anybody working on their own short fiction. Yes, that's me.