‘I know from the caravan beforehand that the villain wears more make-up than the maiden. Black pencil and they’ll twist the edges of your moustache, if you have one. To look grotesque and merciless, they said, it’s important.’
Maxwell and O’Hare’s dispatches from the cross-border precariat capture the unique paralysis of trying to inhabit the present while pinned beneath the weight of ‘lost futures’.
Poetry editor Annemarie Ní Churreáin is joined by Róisín Leggett Bohan, featured poet of our summer issue, to read and discuss her work.
Five years on since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, we celebrate the resilience of Afghan women through publishing this letter exchange between Maryam Mahjoba, a young fiction writer living in Kabul, and the Somali British novelist, Nadifa Mohamed, living in London.
‘Cows turn their big faces, and I am afraid of how life goes on until we die. All those dead tucked into the ground as the ancient Mercedes purrs by.’
‘We resented the fact that she thought we would be impressed by Doug. And we also resented that we were, maybe, impressed by Doug.’
‘I know from the caravan beforehand that the villain wears more make-up than the maiden. Black pencil and they’ll twist the edges of your moustache, if you have one. To look grotesque and merciless, they said, it’s important.’
‘Cows turn their big faces, and I am afraid of how life goes on until we die. All those dead tucked into the ground as the ancient Mercedes purrs by.’
‘We resented the fact that she thought we would be impressed by Doug. And we also resented that we were, maybe, impressed by Doug.’
‘He brings his bottom lip over his top lip and makes it touch his small nose. It makes him look older somehow and like he’s disappointed in me. I remember feeling disappointed in my father when I asked him simple questions and received complicated answers.’
‘A radio station blares such shitty muzak that I double-check to make sure this is, in fact, the man who was my father back in Dublin.’
Image by Abdul Bacet ‘This operation is important to us. Very important. Even more important than lessons, homework, or solving riddles. We can’t mess this up, because Ziwar’s fate is at stake.’
Róisín Leggett Bohan
The Stinging Fly Podcast
Thomas Morris
The Stinging Fly Podcast
June Caldwell
The Stinging Fly Podcast
21st August 2026
20th May 2026
‘I know from the caravan beforehand that the villain wears more make-up than the maiden. Black pencil and they’ll twist the edges of your moustache, if you have one. To look grotesque and merciless, they said, it’s important.’
Five years on since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, we celebrate the resilience of Afghan women through publishing this letter exchange between Maryam Mahjoba, a young fiction writer living in Kabul, and the Somali British novelist, Nadifa Mohamed, living in London.
‘Cows turn their big faces, and I am afraid of how life goes on until we die. All those dead tucked into the ground as the ancient Mercedes purrs by.’