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Short Story Prize 2018/19: Results, Short & Long-lists

Mia Gallagher

Mia Gallagher – Judge

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 


 

The Ten Winners:

Selected by judge Mia Gallagher 
to be published in the Fish Anthology 2019

 

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.

  1. Wakkanai Station: A gorgeously still and lucid meditation that masterfully nudges you along its deceptively simple narrative arc with great precision as it traces the twined lives of a damaged poet and a resigned schoolteacher who – somehow – finds moments in the deadest time of the year to express his singular blue-toned vision. The story evokes time, place and people in economic yet unforgettable detail; in its clean, beautifully handled prose it somehow allows you to reflect not just on memory, art, love and longing – but also on politics, nature and the biggest question of all:- what can, and should, we do in that waiting time between birth and death we call life? Culminates in a perfect, breathtaking moment.

 

  1. Owl Eyes: This story will pull you into its heart. With great intelligence it weaves a layered tale about difference, isolation and that most problematic of human dynamics – love. Beautiful and original nature observations are matched by acute insights into its deeply memorable cast of small, flawed beings, both human and animal. Exquisitely managing time-strands while drawing subtle parallels between all sorts of outsiders. Assured and generous, it will land you in its bittersweet centre and – dreadfully – leave you there – moved, uncomfortable, not knowing whether to forgive or not. No-Aye is still with me, breaking my heart.

 

  1. No Alternative: A subtle tale which appears to start simply enough, bleakness suffusing every line of its spare, unshowy prose in  the opening section. Everything seems straightforward. Okay, you’ll think, I’ve got it, I know where this is going. But then a single line – a man’s heart unpredictably skipping – snares you, and you’re hooked, following the chilly, relentless inevitability of Paul’s journey as he, you and the story sink deeper into a profound Mephistophelian darkness. This subject matter, if handled with less integrity, could result in something horribly schlocky. In this writer’s hands it is perfect. Faust for the FundMe generation.

 

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.

 

 


 

Short-list:

(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

 

 

 


 

Long-list:

(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

 

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I 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


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Fish Anthology 2006 – Grandmother, Girl, Wolf and Other Stories

These 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


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All the King’s Horses – Anthology of Historical Short Stories

Each 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


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Fish Anthology 2005 – The Mountains of Mars and Other Stories

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


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Fish Anthology 2004 – Spoonface and Other Stories

From 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


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Feathers & Cigarettes

In 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


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Franklin’s Grace

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


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Asylum 1928

There 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


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Five O’Clock Shadow

I 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.


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From the Bering Strait

Every 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


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Scrap Magic

The 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


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Dog Day

Really good short stories like these, don’t read like they were written. They read like they simply grew on the page. – Joseph O’Connor


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The Stranger

The writers in this collection can write short stories . . . their quality is the only thing they have in common. – Roddy Doyle


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The Fish Garden

This 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.


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12 Miles Out – a novel by Nick Wright

12 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.


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Altergeist – a novel by Tim Booth

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.


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Small City Blues numbers 1 to 51 – a novel by Martin Kelleher

A 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.


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The Woman Who Swallowed the Book of Kells – Collection of Short Stories by Ian Wild

Ian 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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News & Articles

Fish Anthology 2024

Fish Anthology 2024 LAUNCH

11th June 2024
Monday 15th July at 6:30 Marino (Old Methodist) Church Bantry, West Cork, Ireland The Launch of the Fish Anthology 2024 was held in this charming old methodist church. Many of the authors published in the Anthology read from their work, to showcase sample of  the talent in this book.  We had a get together of […]

Poetry Prize 2024: Results

15th May 2024
  Winners Short-list Long-list     Here are the winners of the Fish Poetry Prize 2024, selected by Billy Collins, to be published in the Fish Anthology 2024. Below you will find short biographies of the winners and the Long and Short Lists. From all of us at Fish we congratulate the poets whose poems […]

Short Story Prize 2023/24: RESULTS

10th April 2024
Winners Short-list Long-list   On behalf of all of us at Fish, congratulations to all of you who made the long and the short-lists.  Apologies for the delay in this announcement. The 10 winners will be published in the Fish Anthology 2024. The launch will be during the West Cork Literary Festival, Bantry, Ireland – […]

Flash Fiction Prize 2024: RESULTS

10th April 2024
Winners Short-list Long-list   From all of us at Fish, thank you for entering your flashes. Congratulations to the writers who  were short or long-listed, and in particular to the 11 winners whose flash stories will be published in the Fish Anthology 2024. The launch will be during the West Cork Literary Festival, Bantry, Ireland […]

Short Memoir Prize 2024: RESULTS

1st April 2024
Winners Short-list Long-list   On behalf of all of us at Fish, we congratulate the 10 winners who’s memoir made it into the Fish Anthology 2024 (due to be launched in July ’24 at the West Cork Literary Festival), and to those writers who made the long and short-lists, well done too.  Thank you to Sean […]

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