[caption id="attachment_67442" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Declan Meade, the editor and cofounder of the Stinging Fly."]
More readers.
That's the goal cited by editor Declan Meade of the ambitious plan by Irish literary magazine the Stinging Fly to stage three events on consecutive nights in Manhattan next week.
"Our main objective from the start has been to publish and promote new writing," said Meade, who co-founded the magazine in 1997. "It would be hard to come up with a better opportunity to promote the work than taking it to New York.
"That is the principal job of publishing -- to connect writers with readers," he said.
"The opportunity to go to New York and to do our events there arises simply because of the work Culture Ireland is doing this year though Imagine Ireland," added Meade, who grew up in Ardee, Co. Louth.
The Stinging Fly's 128-page Winter 2011-12 issue is New York-themed to mark the endeavor.
The publication will soon surpass the longevity of the Bell, perhaps Ireland's most famous literary and cultural magazine, which was launched in 1941 and closed in 1954.
But Meade hadn't the Bell in mind when he suggested the idea. "It was more a case of responding to an evident need for an outlet for new writers, and in particular for new short stories," he said.
At a book launch, he heard David Marcus, who had edited the "New Irish Writing" page in the Irish Press for many years, say there weren't enough outlets for short stories.
"That gave myself and Aoife Kavanagh that final nudge to set up the magazine," he recalled. "And I was inspired by the quality, the tradition and the history of U.S. journals such as Ploughshares and also, say, Poetry."
"It's his living and it's his life and soul," said Emily Firetog, a Columbia University graduate student who represents the magazine in New York. She worked with Meade on the magazine in Dublin for three years after she completed a Masters degree at Trinity.
"It's his project. He brings so much energy to it," she said. "It has a lot of clout and visibility.
"He works individually with writers to help them hone their craft," Firetog said. "When something doesn't get accepted, he'll still work with the writer for years."
The Stinging Fly (www.stingingfly. org), which is supported by the Irish Arts Council and Dublin City Council, publishes short stories, poetry, author interviews, essays, translations and book reviews. It's a mix that distinguishes it from other literary magazines in Ireland, she said.
But what makes the Stinging Fly stand out, Firetog believes, is its mission to publish "what's exciting in both new and established writing."
