22 April,
In Conversation / Panel /
The Stinging Fly Presents: The Climate Issue
Wednesday, 22 April 2026, 2:30pm
Galway Arts Centre – Nuns Island Theatre / €10/12
Book NowHow as artists should we engage with the consequences of climate change? What can writers – or any of us – do in the face of impending climate catastrophe?
These were two of the questions that The Stinging Fly sought to answer when it put out the submission call for its latest issue, which takes the ongoing climate emergency as its theme.
This Earth Day, join The Stinging Fly’s editor Lisa McInerney, visual artist Ríonach Ní Néill and poet Joey Connolly in conversation with climate activist and academic Dr Nessa Cronin to discuss the capacity for artists and writers to intervene and to help save our planet.
Lisa McInerney is the author of three novels: The Glorious Heresies, The Blood Miracles and The Rules of Revelation. She has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the RSL Encore Award and the Premio Edoardo Kihlgren for European literature. She is published in 13 languages, has been editor of The Stinging Fly since 2022, and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Galway.
Joey Connolly grew up in Sheffield and now works in London as Director of Faber Academy. His first collection of poems, Long Pass, was published by Carcanet in 2017, and was followed by The Recycling(a Telegraph book of the year) in May 2023. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2012.
Dr Nessa Cronin is Head of Irish Studies at the Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, University of Galway, Ireland. As an interdisciplinary scholar with a background in Continental Philosophy and Irish Literature her recent work in Environmental Humanities has critically examined the role of humanities research and arts practice in addressing the existential challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. She has contributed to international public fora and national government policy on the critical role that the arts and humanities can play in bridging the gap between climate ambition and climate action.
