FIRST:
Wakkanai Station |
by Richard Lambert (UK) |
Is awarded €3,000, one thousand of which is for travel to the launch of the Fish Anthology 2018, and a short story workshop at the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2019.
SECOND:
Owl Eyes |
by Mary Brown (Ireland) |
Is awarded a week in residence at Anam Cara Writers’ Retreat and €300.
THIRD:
No Alternative |
by Camilla Macpherson (UK) |
Is awarded €300
HONORARY MENTIONS: (in no particular order)
Awarded €200 each
In Memoriam by Joshua Davis (UK) |
|
Lukey by Peter W. Bishop (Australia) |
|
Yvonne, Yvonne by Linda Fennelly (Ireland) |
|
You Were One Of Us by Mary Brown (Ireland) |
|
The Woodpusher by Martin Keating (Ireland) |
|
Three Bodies by Peter-Adrian Altini (S. Africa) |
|
L is for Laura by Tom Billings (USA) |
From all of us at Fish we congratulate the writers of the ten stories selected by Mia for publication in the Fish Anthology 2019. There were 1,260 entries and the competition was of a very high standard. Thank to Mia Gallagher for her time and wisdom. We appreciate her interest and support of Fish’s endeavour to publish new and aspiring writers, (of which Mia was one many years ago!) We are delighted that these ten stories will make for an anthology of excellent work. We look forward to meeting the writers and hearing them read at the launch at the West Cork Literary Festival in July.
– Clem Cairns –
Here are Mia’s thoughts on each of the winning stories.
Seven Honorary Mentions:
In Memoriam: Cool, beautifully paced, clever storytelling, terrifically adroit in balancing theme, story and form. It’s the rhythm of this dangerous little piece that’s most remarkable: single paragraphs that reveal, bit by bit, the nature of our apparently straightforward narrator. Each paragraph a prose poem, carefully mosaiced with its neighbour fragments, each pulling you in deeper to his world, his crux, his unspeakable job, his ultimate destination.
Lukey: One of the most perfect short stories I’ve ever read; luminous descriptions of the natural world, a fierce depiction of time and place, populated by a deeply engaging cast of characters in a sweltering Aussie frontiersworld. It’s page-turningly gripping. I dare you to read it and not fall in love with Lukey, his dog Jazz, his horse Tom, his clever hands, and the women who ‘knowingly’ can’t share their knowledge of him.
Yvonne, Yvonne: Oh, my. A staccato, energised showstopper of interior monologue – full of gorgeous turns of phrase, twists of story, sudden, sardonic barks of laughter. A wee rollercoaster that had me from the first line and kept me on, miraculously, all the way to the end. Eponymous Yvonne is a true original. I’ll be looking out for her in every small town I drive through.
You Were One Of Us: There is a savage lyrical integrity to this wondrous story from the first line; a searing compassion that is absolutely on the right side of melodrama and a hungry, lonely yearning that endures after the sublime last line. To nail this type of content – infanticide in the seabound North-west of Ireland – with this type of voice – lush, folky, choral – is in itself a major achievement. Synge, if he were alive, might just eat his heart out.
The Woodpusher: If Beatrice and Benedict suddenly found themselves in middle-Ireland swapping chess moves for wordplay, this is how Shakespeare would write them. Two obnoxious protagonists spar, move by move, over an elegant and weirdly compelling arc. With each move, they change, and – goodness! – so do we, and suddenly there’s a lot to lose, and dammit, you’ll find you care. Liberatingly uplifting under the surface fun.
Three Bodies: Nothing else like this in the shortlist. Dark and moody, it’s an examination of mortality and failing outsiderdom; the need to connect in the face of loss. Set in Paris, it wears its existentialist heritage with pride. Nothing showy in the prose; instead, some startling images and a sad, pulsing honesty at the core of this piece that will linger.
L is for Laura: Sharp, clear, unsullied prose, a story bristling with charm and integrity. Structurally deft, it’s told through a series of relentless short episodes; sketched with the perfect amount of detail, as it watches the unfolding downwards spiral of Laura’s life, alongside that of the narrator, Nicholas. They’re somehow connected, somehow not. Just when he thinks she’s gone, she’s back. Not an ounce of sentimentality; devastatingly note perfect.
(alphabetical order)
There are 80 stories in the short-list. The total entry was 1260.
TITLE |
First Name |
Last Name |
The Ghoul of St. Clare |
Debbie |
Adshade |
Corvids |
Noel |
Alexander |
Three Bodies |
Peter-Adrian |
Altini |
Overdue |
Gail |
Anderson |
Fabulous Frankie’s Cricket Diary |
David |
Atkinson |
L Is For Laura |
Tom |
Billings |
Lukey |
Peter |
Bishop |
Cake of the Year |
Judith |
Bridge |
Eat and Run |
Judith |
Bridge |
You were one of us |
Mary |
Brown |
Owl Eyes |
Mary |
Brown |
BE A MAN |
Colin |
Burns |
Kozlov’s Girl |
Mike |
Carson |
Model Village |
Julia |
Clayton |
Viking |
Julia |
Clayton |
Cafe Herakles |
Julia |
Clayton |
In Her Gimlet Eye, The Answer |
Joshua |
Davis |
In Memoriam |
Joshua |
Davis |
26 ways to write a love letter |
Helen |
de Búrca |
Amma |
Elaine |
Desmond |
All That’s Left Behind |
Joanne |
Done |
Maestro |
Bryony |
Doran |
The Gravedigger’s Apprentice |
Garret |
Dwyer Joyce |
The Homecoming |
Linda |
Edwards |
Noises in the night |
Eoghan |
Egan |
The Digital Revolution Will Not Be Televised |
Travis |
Elsum |
Yvonne, Yvonne |
Linda |
Fennelly |
Fade |
Amy |
Ferguson |
My Irish Christmas Carol |
Frances |
Fischer |
Brave |
Gloria |
Froese |
A Minute Away |
Kristi |
Gedeon |
Ebb and Flow |
Kristi |
Gedeon |
The Malevolent Stray |
Nicola |
Gifford Cowan |
Love in an abattoir |
Brendan |
Gill |
The Birds of Spain |
Rebecca |
Graham |
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home |
Fergal |
Greene |
The Rival |
Rhian |
Holvey |
Whales of the City |
Harrison |
Horan |
Scratched Enamel Heart |
Mandy |
Huggins |
Raspberry Madeleines |
Rebecca F |
John |
Whatever You Say, Say Nothing |
Forest |
Jones |
Al-watan |
Alissa |
Jones Nelson |
Lucky |
Maria |
Kaplun |
Five Nights at Bonuru |
Maria |
Kaplun |
The Woodpusher |
Martin |
Keating |
As he drowned in his own blood |
Bridgett |
Kendall |
Weasel, Popped |
Bonnie |
Kidd |
Something Else |
Sophie |
Kirkwood |
Wakkanai Station |
Richard |
Lambert |
A Wedding |
Richard |
Lambert |
Holly and the Visitant |
John |
Langan |
Liquid Gold |
Jane |
Lavelle |
The Fish and Martin |
Nick |
Le Mesurier |
As Light as Air |
Carolyn |
Lewis |
What Love Survives |
Duncan |
MacInnes |
Labyrinth |
Lauren |
Mackenzie |
No Alternative |
Camilla |
Macpherson |
A Vacuum Filled with Suspended Love |
Taro |
Madden |
Every Employee’s Dream |
Stephen |
Maitland-Lewis |
A Sex Manual for the Over-sixties |
Thomas |
Malloch |
Temper |
ANDREA |
marcusa |
Winter Apples |
Marina |
Marinopoulos |
The House We Lived In |
Denise |
McSheehy |
School Run |
PJ |
Moore |
The After Life |
Grainne |
Murphy |
Wailing Wall |
Etan |
Nechin |
The Tarot Reader |
Mary |
O’Donnell |
Hot Scary Summer |
Adam |
O’Keeffe |
First Blush |
Owen |
O’Reilly |
Need a Body Cry? |
Michael |
Popper |
The Life of Marguerita Terral |
Martin |
Ryall |
Robin’s Fatal Flaw |
Paul |
Sedgley |
Still We Survive |
kristine |
simelda |
Tristan and The Glass Sea |
Alison |
Thompson |
Unicorns along the Mohawk |
Lynn |
Trudeau |
JOURNEY Eleanor Mayu Yakamoto, 1959 |
Megan |
Vorm |
Ménage à Quatre |
Ross |
Weldon |
Distinguishing Features |
Clare |
Weze |
The ship I’m on |
Stuart |
Williams |
Vestiges Of A Dream |
Stephen |
Young |
(alphabetical order)
There are 231 stories in the long-list. The total entry was 1260.
TITLE |
First Name |
Last Name |
The Ghoul of St. Clare |
Debbie |
Adshade |
Bone Dry |
Suzanne |
Ahern |
Corvids |
Noel |
Alexander |
Three Bodies |
Peter-Adrian |
Altini |
Overdue |
Gail |
Anderson |
The Art of Leaving |
Deborah |
Appleton |
Levels |
Deborah |
Appleton |
Fabulous Frankie’s Cricket Diary |
David |
Atkinson |
Rotterdam |
Tony |
Axelrad |
In Your Own Image |
Thomas |
Balloch |
Sweet Sixteen |
Mina |
Bancheva |
The Last Lighthouse Keeper |
Chris |
Barnham |
The Flame-Haired Vixen |
Elizabeth |
Bazalgette |
L Is For Laura |
Tom |
Billings |
Lukey |
Peter |
Bishop |
Subterranean |
Mary |
Black |
The Stars are Out |
Paul |
Blewitt |
The Comfort Station |
Mary |
Bonner |
The Porous Texture of Snow |
Alan |
Bray |
The Baker |
Judith |
Bridge |
The Perfect Nobody |
Judith |
Bridge |
Cake of the Year |
Judith |
Bridge |
Eat and Run |
Judith |
Bridge |
You were one of us |
Mary |
Brown |
Owl Eyes |
Mary |
Brown |
Purple Water |
Marti |
Buckley |
The Object of Indifference |
David |
Burke |
BE A MAN |
Colin |
Burns |
Judgments |
Paul |
Byall |
Sunlift |
Jack |
Callil |
THAT OUR FEET MAY LEAVE |
Alys |
Cambray |
Waiting |
Christina |
Campbell |
Maximum |
Andy |
Carroll |
Odyssey |
Robert |
Carroll |
Buried Evidence |
Sally |
Carroll |
Kozlov’s Girl |
Mike |
Carson |
BURGER BOY |
Nilesha |
Chauvet |
Open Evening |
Julia |
Clayton |
Model Village |
Julia |
Clayton |
Viking |
Julia |
Clayton |
Cafe Herakles |
Julia |
Clayton |
The Spaces In-between |
Paula |
Conway |
Not That Sort Of Person |
Tamsin |
Cottis |
Just Like Stephen King |
Charles |
Covello |
Blue Skies |
Maureen |
Cullen |
Either Shoot Me in the Head or Shut Your Freaking Mouth |
Sohom |
Das |
In a Farce, but Unaware |
Sohom |
Das |
In Her Gimlet Eye, The Answer |
Joshua |
Davis |
In Memoriam |
Joshua |
Davis |
Acts of Nature, Acts of God |
Annie |
Dawid |
26 ways to write a love letter |
Helen |
de Búrca |
The Lady in Black |
Charlotte |
Derrick |
Amma |
Elaine |
Desmond |
All That’s Left Behind |
Joanne |
Done |
Leaving Cath |
Ross |
Donlon |
Maestro |
Bryony |
Doran |
The Bee Keeper |
Doreen |
Duffy |
The Gravedigger’s Apprentice |
Garret |
Dwyer Joyce |
The Homecoming |
Linda |
Edwards |
Noises in the night |
Eoghan |
Egan |
The Digital Revolution Will Not Be Televised |
Travis |
Elsum |
The Ella-May Memorial Club |
Lucey |
Emma |
Yvonne, Yvonne |
Linda |
Fennelly |
Fade |
Amy |
Ferguson |
My Irish Christmas Carol |
Frances |
Fischer |
Visiting Hours |
Aingeala |
Flannery |
Ode to Travel |
Susan |
Francis |
Meadowlands |
David |
Frankel |
Advent |
Jane |
Fraser |
The View From Here |
Barbara |
Fried |
Deconstructing Desdemona–Under Cuban Skirts |
Paula |
Friedman |
Brave |
Gloria |
Froese |
Night on the Lagoon |
Jo |
Gardiner |
Home Shopping |
Kristi |
Gedeon |
A Minute Away |
Kristi |
Gedeon |
Ebb and Flow |
Kristi |
Gedeon |
Bind |
Ruth |
Geldard |
The Malevolent Stray |
Nicola |
Gifford Cowan |
Love in an abattoir |
Brendan |
Gill |
The Threshold of Forever |
Wayne |
Gooderham |
The Birds of Spain |
Rebecca |
Graham |
“THAT BOY IN SEAT 2A” |
Geoffrey |
Graves |
It Will Rain Itself Out |
Fergal |
Greene |
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home |
Fergal |
Greene |
The Farewell Cabin |
Alastair |
Hagger |
The Murder |
Jane Eaton |
Hamilton |
Poisen |
Helen |
Harjak |
Lucky |
Sophie |
Harrington |
This Empty Room |
America |
Hart |
Nowhere Place |
Regina |
Hathout |
The Boys From The Ousbah |
Craig |
Hawes |
The bottle of Whisky |
Nic |
Herriot |
The Wedding |
Anne |
Heyburn |
Blood on the Cross |
Euwan |
Hodgson |
The Rival |
Rhian |
Holvey |
Whales of the City |
Harrison |
Horan |
Scratched Enamel Heart |
Mandy |
Huggins |
Another Girl |
Emma |
Hutton |
Humans |
Emma |
Hutton |
Footfall |
Steven |
Irwin |
A Curious Tale |
Paul |
Jeffcutt |
Raspberry Madeleines |
Rebecca F |
John |
I Lift my Lids |
Jessica |
Jones |
Whatever You Say, Say Nothing |
Forest |
Jones |
Al-watan |
Alissa |
Jones Nelson |
Lucky |
Maria |
Kaplun |
Five Nights at Bonuru |
Maria |
Kaplun |
Slow Time |
Vikram |
Kapur |
The Woodpusher |
Martin |
Keating |
As he drowned in his own blood |
Bridgett |
Kendall |
Down Memory Lane |
Alan |
Kennedy |
Purser |
Liz |
Kerr |
Weasel, Popped |
Bonnie |
Kidd |
Lantern Moon |
Thomas |
Kiernan |
Something Else |
Sophie |
Kirkwood |
JUNOON |
Sanjay |
Kumar V. |
The Lemon Tree |
Shibani |
Lal |
Wakkanai Station |
Richard |
Lambert |
A Wedding |
Richard |
Lambert |
Cornelius and the Angel |
John |
Langan |
Holly and the Visitant |
John |
Langan |
Liquid Gold |
Jane |
Lavelle |
The Fish and Martin |
Nick |
Le Mesurier |
Baby Blues |
Siobhan |
Lennon |
Tomorrow Morning |
Colin |
Leonard |
Rushes |
Alison Jean |
Lester |
As Light as Air |
Carolyn |
Lewis |
The Man from Andalusia |
Annie |
Lindberg |
A Life Examined |
Gary |
Lines |
Have a Break, Have a KitKat |
Gary |
Lines |
Interstate |
Kate |
Lister Campbell |
The Resurrectionist |
Robin |
Lloyd-Jones |
STOCK AND STACK |
Erini |
Loucaides |
What Love Survives |
Duncan |
MacInnes |
A Motion Away |
Deborah |
Mack |
Labyrinth |
Lauren |
Mackenzie |
No Alternative |
Camilla |
Macpherson |
A Vacuum Filled with Suspended Love |
Taro |
Madden |
Bee on the Wall |
Paul |
Mahon |
Every Employee’s Dream |
Stephen |
Maitland-Lewis |
A Sex Manual for the Over-sixties |
Thomas |
Malloch |
Temper |
ANDREA |
marcusa |
Winter Apples |
Marina |
Marinopoulos |
Safety Matches |
Kathryn |
Marshall |
Table Tennis |
PS |
Matthews |
The Stranger at the Funeral |
Kevin |
Mc Dermott |
An Encounter on Copley Square |
Patrick |
McCusker |
If this were a milonga |
Marie |
McGinley |
Sandscript |
Petra |
McNulty |
Mind Games |
Róisín |
McPhilemy |
The House We Lived In |
Denise |
McSheehy |
The North East |
Linda |
McVeigh |
Welcome Home, Huckleberry Bro’ |
Katayoun |
Medhat |
Pigs Can Fly |
Bruce |
Meyer |
Pigs Can Fly |
Bruce |
Meyer |
Liberation |
Bruce |
Meyer |
FIRSTBORN |
Michelle |
Michau-Crawford |
The May Fires |
Virginia |
Miranda |
LAST DAY |
GUY |
MITCHELL |
Empty Sky |
Tracey |
Mitchell |
Santimanitay |
Celeste |
Mohammed |
School Run |
PJ |
Moore |
Polack is warming now |
Michael |
Morrissey |
Break a sweat |
Joshua |
mpanju |
Just Like Pocahontas |
Eamon |
Murphy |
The After Life |
Grainne |
Murphy |
The Case of Mr. Withers |
Aengus |
Murray |
What Poets Do |
Alan |
Murrin |
Wailing Wall |
Etan |
Nechin |
The Pendulum |
James |
Northern |
Lunch Money |
Janna |
Northrup |
The Church |
Grainne |
O Brien |
The Afters |
Grainne |
O Brien |
The Bonnie Isles of Caledonia |
Mary |
O’Donnell |
The Tarot Reader |
Mary |
O’Donnell |
Hot Scary Summer |
Adam |
O’Keeffe |
First Blush |
Owen |
O’Reilly |
Leap Of Faith |
Alistair |
Palmer |
For Those Who Trespass |
Simon |
Parker |
Boxing In The Shadows |
Doug |
Pender |
A Storm in Shelter |
Nicholas |
Petty |
Need a Body Cry? |
Michael |
Popper |
Stephen Hawking’s Dog |
Kevin Noel |
Power |
In a Different Light |
Barsa |
Ray |
That time I thought OCPD told the truth |
Clare |
Reid |
River of January |
Jonathan |
Reilly |
Differentiation |
Lynne |
Richards |
Ensnarement |
Lisa |
Robbins |
The River of Secrets |
Yvonne |
Roche-Harth |
How Sweet the Fruit – How Bitter the Harvest |
Michael |
Roe |
Heartbreak Comes In Waves |
Simon |
Rumney |
The Life of Marguerita Terral |
Martin |
Ryall |
If the Line breaks, No Worries |
Shannon |
Savvas |
Smolder |
Terri |
Scullen |
Robin’s Fatal Flaw |
Paul |
Sedgley |
Lady with blazing Sapphire |
Patrick |
Sexton |
Together |
Catriona |
Shine |
Still We Survive |
Kristine |
Simelda |
The Last Witch |
Fiona |
Skepper |
The Caledonia |
Sarah |
Smith |
A Good Catholic Upbringing |
Taina |
Smith |
Gauguin Takes a Cruise |
Adam |
Soto |
The Recipe |
Karmen |
Spiljak |
The House of Special Purpose |
Kate |
Spitzmiller |
Nowhere. Nothing. Nobody. |
Gareth |
Strachan |
How Fast it Goes |
Leah |
Swann |
The Relief of 7 Harrington Avenue |
Stuart |
Tallack |
Tristan and The Glass Sea |
Alison |
Thompson |
The Bloodhounds |
Caroline |
Timlin |
Homo Ex |
Rhys |
Timson |
New Pajamas |
Deanna |
Todd-Godson |
Unicorns along the Mohawk |
Lynn |
Trudeau |
Sleigh Parade |
Judith |
Turner-Yamamoto |
One Thousand and One |
Gabriel |
Valjan |
Pac-Man |
Kelly |
Van Nelson |
Hettie |
Claire |
Varden |
JOURNEY Eleanor Mayu Yakamoto, 1959 |
Megan |
Vorm |
The Bridge |
Angus |
Walker |
Fugue |
Diana |
Wallace |
FYLDE |
Jennie |
Walmsley |
The Long Silence |
Catherine |
Watkins |
Grave |
John C. |
Weir |
Ménage à Quatre |
Ross |
Weldon |
Distinguishing Features |
Clare |
Weze |
Insistent Voices |
Sue |
Whytock |
The ship I’m on |
Stuart |
Williams |
Ave Maria |
Colette |
Willis |
The Snow Station |
Pat |
Winslow |
And Yet |
Michele |
Wong |
Descent into Limbo |
James |
Woolf |
Vestiges Of A Dream |
Stephen |
Young |
Vivid, astute, gripping, evocative. These stories utterly transported me. – Sarah Hall (Short Story)
In the landscape of emotion and folly, Flash writers are a fearless lot – these stories prove it. – Michelle Elvy (Flash Fiction)
… combining the personal and particular with the universal, each touching in surprising ways … experiences that burn deep, that need to be told. – Sean Lusk (Memoir)
Strong poems. First place is a poem I wish I’d written! – Billy Collins (Poetry)
More… a showcase of disquiet, tension, subversion and surprise …
so many skilled pieces … gem-like, compressed and glinting, little worlds in entirety that refracted life and ideas … What a joy!
– Sarah Hall
… memoirs pinpointing precise
feelings of loss and longing and desire.
– Sean Lusk
What a pleasure to watch these poets’ minds at work, guiding us this way and that.
– Billy Collins
‘… delightful, lively send-up … A vivid imagination is at play here, and a fine frenzy is the result.’ – Billy Collins
‘… laying frames of scenic detail to compose a lyric collage … enticing … resonates compellingly. … explosive off-screen drama arises through subtly-selected detail. Sharp, clever, economical, tongue-in-cheek.’ – Tracey Slaughter
Brave stories of danger and heart and sincerity.
Some risk everything outright, some are desperately quiet, but their intensity lies in what is unsaid and off the page.
These are brilliant pieces from bright, new voices.
A thrill to read.
~ Emily Ruskovich
I could see great stretches of imagination. I saw experimentation. I saw novelty with voice and style. I saw sentences that embraced both meaning and music. ~ Colum McCann
MoreThese glorious pieces have spun across the globe – pit-stopping in Japan, the Aussie outback, Vancouver, Paris, Amsterdam and our own Hibernian shores – traversing times past, present and imagined future as deftly as they mine the secret tunnels of the human heart. Enjoy the cavalcade. – Mia Gallagher
MoreThe standard is high, in terms of the emotional impact these writers managed to wring from just a few pages. – Billy O’Callaghan
Loop-de-loopy, fizz, and dazzle … unique and compelling—compressed, expansive, and surprising. – Sherrie Flick
Every page oozes with a sense of place and time. – Marti Leimbach
Energetic, dense with detail … engages us in the act of seeing, reminds us that attention is itself a form of praise. – Ellen Bass
MoreDead Souls has the magic surplus of meaning that characterises fine examples of the form – Neel Mukherjee
I was looking for terrific writing of course – something Fish attracts in spades, and I was richly rewarded right across the spectrum – Vanessa Gebbie
Really excellent – skilfully woven – Chris Stewart
Remarkable – Jo Shapcott
The practitioners of the art of brevity and super-brevity whose work is in this book have mastered the skills and distilled and double-distilled their work like the finest whiskey.
More€12 (incl. p&p) Sunrise Sunset by Tina Pisco Read Irish Times review by Claire Looby Surreal, sad, zany, funny, Tina Pisco’s stories are drawn from gritty experience as much as the swirling clouds of the imagination. An astute, empathetic, sometimes savage observer, she brings her characters to life. They dance themselves onto the pages, […]
MoreHow do we transform personal experience of pain into literature? How do we create and then chisel away at those images of others, of loss, of suffering, of unspeakable helplessness so that they become works of art that aim for a shared humanity? The pieces selected here seem to prompt all these questions and the best of them offer some great answers.
– Carmen Bugan.
What a high standard all round – of craft, imagination and originality: and what a wide range of feeling and vision.
Ruth Padel
I was struck by how funny many of the stories are, several of them joyously so – they are madcap and eccentric and great fun. Others – despite restrained and elegant prose – managed to be devastating. All of them are the work of writers with talent.
Claire Kilroy
The writing comes first, the bottom line comes last. And sandwiched between is an eye for the innovative, the inventive and the extraordinary.
MoreA new collection from around the globe: innovative, exciting, invigorating work from the writers and poets who will be making waves for some time to come. David Mitchell, Michael Collins, David Shields and Billy Collins selected the stories, flash fiction, memoirs and poems in this anthology.
MoreReading the one page stories I was a little dazzled, and disappointed that I couldn’t give the prize to everybody. It’s such a tight format, every word must count, every punctuation mark. ‘The Long Wet Grass’ is a masterly bit of story telling … I still can’t get it out of my mind.
– Chris Stewart
The perfectly achieved story transcends the limitations of space with profundity and insight. What I look for in fiction, of whatever length, is authenticity and intensity of feeling. I demand to be moved, to be transported, to be introduced into other lives. The stories I have selected for this anthology have managed this. – Ronan Bennett, Short Story Judge.
MoreI sing those who are published here – they have done a very fine job. It is difficult to create from dust, which is what writers do. It is an honour to have read your work. – Colum McCann
MoreThe entries into this year’s Fish Short Story Prize were universally strong. From these the judges have selected winners, we believe, of exceptional virtue. – Carlo Gebler
MoreI was amazed and delighted at the range and quality of these stories. Every one of them was interesting, well-written, beautifully crafted and, as a short-story must, every one of them focused my attention on that very curtailed tableau which a short-story necessarily sets before us. – Michael Collins
MoreThese stories voice all that is vibrant about the form. – Gerard Donovan. Very short stories pack a poetic punch. Each of these holds its own surprise, or two. Dive into these seemingly small worlds. You’ll come up anew. – Angela Jane Fountas
MoreEach of the pieces here has been chosen for its excellence. They are a delightfully varied assortment. More than usual for an anthology, this is a compendium of all the different ways that fiction can succeed. I invite you to turn to ‘All the King’s Horses’. The past is here. Begin.
– Michel Faber
Literary anthologies, especially of new work, act as a kind of indicator to a society’s concerns. This Short Story collection, such a sharp and useful enterprise, goes beyond that. Its internationality demonstrates how our concerns are held in common across the globe. – Frank Delaney
MoreFrom the daily routine of a career in ‘Spoonface’, to the powerful, recurring image of a freezer in ‘Shadow Lives’. It was the remarkable focus on the ordinary that made these Fish short stories such a pleasure to read. – Hugo Hamilton
MoreIn a world where twenty screens of bullshit seem to be revolving without respite … there is nothing that can surpass the ‘explosion of art’ and its obstinate insistence on making sense of things. These dedicated scribes, as though some secret society, heroically, humbly, are espousing a noble cause.
– Pat McCabe
It’s supposed to be a short form, the good story, but it has about it a largeness I love. There is something to admire in all these tales, these strange, insistent invention. They take place in a rich and satisfying mixture of places, countries of the mind and heart. – Christopher Hope
MoreThere are fine stories in this new anthology, some small and intimate, some reaching out through the personal for a wider, more universal perspective, wishing to tell a story – grand, simple, complex or everyday, wishing to engage you the reader. – Kate O’Riodan
MoreI feel like issuing a health warning with this Fish Anthology these stories may seriously damage your outlook – Here the writers view the world in their unique way, and have the imagination, talent, and the courage to refine it into that most surprising of all art forms the short story. – Clem Cairns.
MoreEvery story in this book makes its own original way in the world. knowing which are the telling moments, and showing them to us. And as the narrator of the winning story casually remarks, ‘Sometimes its the small things that amaze me’ – Molly McCloskey
MoreThe stories here possess the difference, the quirkiness and the spark. They follow their own road and their own ideas their own way. It is a valuable quality which makes this collection a varied one. Read it, I hope you say to yourself like I did on many occasions, ‘That’s deadly. How did they think of that?’ – Eamonn Sweeney
MoreReally good short stories like these, don’t read like they were written. They read like they simply grew on the page. – Joseph O’Connor
MoreThe writers in this collection can write short stories . . . their quality is the only thing they have in common. – Roddy Doyle
MoreThis is the first volume of short stories from Ireland’s newest publishing house. We are proud that fish has enabled 15 budding new writers be published in this anthology, and I look forward to seeing many of them in print again.
More12 Miles Out was selected by David Mitchell as the winner of the Fish Unpublished Novel Award.
A love story, thriller and historical novel; funny and sad, uplifting and enlightening.
You only know who you can’t trust. You can’t trust the law, because there’s none in New Ireland. You can’t trust the Church, because they think they’re the law. And you can’t trust the State, because they think they’re the Church And most of all, you can’t trust your friends, because you can’t remember who they were anymore.
MoreA memoir of urban life, chronicled through its central character, Mackey. From momentary reflections to stories about his break with childhood and adolescence, the early introduction to the Big World, the discovery of romance and then love, the powerlessness of ordinary people, the weaknesses that end in disappointment and the strengths that help them seek redemption and belonging.
MoreIan Wild’s stories mix Monty Python with Hammer Horror, and the Beatles with Shakespeare, but his anarchic style and sense of humour remain very much his own in this collection of tall tales from another planet. Where else would you find vengeful organs, the inside story of Eleanor Rigby, mobile moustaches, and Vikings looting a Cork City branch of Abracababra?
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