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Short Memoir Prize 2020: Results, Short & Long-lists

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

Congratulations to the writers whose memoirs were short or long-listed and to the 10 winners.


 

The Ten Winners:

Here are the 10 winners of the Short Memoir Prize as chosen by judge David Shields, to be published in the Fish Anthology 2020

David Shields

David Shields – judge.

Our thanks to David Shields for his time and wisdom.

The Fish Anthology 2020 will be launched as part of the West Cork Literary Festival  (July 2020).
All of the writers published in the Anthology are invited to read at the launch.

First prize is €1,000.
Second prize is a week at Casa Ana Writers’ Retreat
in Andalusia, Spain, and €300 travel expenses.
Third prize is €200.

 

1 Buck Rabbit   by Noelle McCarthy (New Zealand)

Self-aware but un-self-conscious. Gets powerfully at the vast depth of our little failures and too-small high of too-few triumphs. 

 

2 Inner Core by Miki Lentin (London)

Great opening paragraph. Narrative slides effectively in and out of time, and the voice feels authentic.

 

3 The Road to Salamanca by John Martin Johnson (Yorkshire, UK)

Fleshy, plainly stated, strongly worded. Details are used here like barbs—effectively and personally. He writes without cliche about family, loss, and guilt. 

 

COMMENDED: HONORARY MENTIONS

 

Roman Quartet by Tom Finnigan (UK)

The protagonist is remarkably likeable, and the story is great.  

 

 

Catch Me If You Can by Julia Motyka  (New York)

Candid and intelligent.

 

 

Brief Notes to My Brother’s Other Sisters by Lisa K. Buchanan (San Francisco)

Effective use of second person, uncommonly portraying a slightly less uncommon situation.

 

 

Moulded by Phil Cummins (Kildare, Ireland)

Strong beginning. Nicely colloquial throughout.

 

 

Regeneration by Laura-Blaise McDowell (Dublin)

Powerful examination of obsession

 

 

Leg Man by Alan McCormick (Wicklow, Ireland)

Honest. Breezy. Funny.

 

 

What Are Young Men to Rocks and Mountains? by Maán Jalal (Dubai)

Lovely essay on how writing does/doesn’t heal.

 

 


 

Short-list:

(alphabetical order)

There are 40 memoirs in the short-list. There were 916  entries in total.

Title

First Name

Last Name

Woman-Child

Penelope

Atkinson

My Guardian Uncles

Myriam

Bastian

Staying After

Harry

Bauld

Telling

Anneke

Bender

Blood and Roses

Mary

Black

Brief Notes to My Brother’s Other Sisters

Lisa K.

Buchanan

Non-standard

Achas

Burin

Wives Kill People Like You

Christine

Connor

Moulded

Phil

Cummins

Scenes From A Rebellious Infancy

Sigrid

Daniel

Safe Crossing

Penelope

Douglas

Who Dies First?

Doris

Ferleger

Jumpy Jewish Female Seeks …

Doris

Ferleger

Roman Quartet

Tom

Finnigan

The Blue Wallpaper

Eva

Hibbs

Grafted Mandarin

Allison

Hong Merrill

The Infinite Curse of a Paralysed Heart

BARBARA

HUNT

What Are Young Men to Rocks and Mountains?

Maan

Jalal

The Road To Salamanca

John Martin

Johnson

Inner Core

Miki

Lentin

To Do

James

Lough

The Day the Pope Saved My Life

Michael

Lowis

Rectory Girl

Deborah

Mack

The Blue Breast is Banished to Outer Space

S. A.

MacLeod

Fiendish

Bill

McBean

Buck Rabbit

Noelle

McCarthy

Leg Man

Alan

McCormick

Regeneration

Laura-Blaise

McDowell

Catch Me If You Can

Julia

Motyka

Days With Ulanova

Fiona

O’Connor

The Contract

Jim

O’Connor

Eloise

Jenny

Ochera

The Poker

JeanAnn

Pollard

Turn, Kaleidoscope

Alyson

Porter

Grandview

John Michael

Ruskovich

November 1983

Knight

Son

Apparitions

Cathy

Stacchini

A Crow

Paul

Tylak

Elon’s Dragon

Donna

Ward

It’s Always an Argument

Amy

Wright

 

 

 


 

Long-list:

(alphabetical order)

There are 128 memoirs in the long-list. There were 916  entries in total.

 

Night Worker Sleeping​

Title

First Name

Last Name

Growing Pain

Elizabeth

Allen

Woman-Child

Penelope

Atkinson

The Ginger

C.E.

Ayr

Made in Luton, Big in Japan

Camilla

Balshaw

My Guardian Uncles

Myriam

Bastian

Staying After

Harry

Bauld

1956

James Tully

Beatty Jr.

Infinite Paradise

Dianne

Beeaff

Telling

Anneke

Bender

Blood and Roses

Mary

Black

The Blooding

David

Brennan

Spitting Distance

Jill

Brown

How I became

Rosemary

Brydon

Brief Notes to My Brother’s Other Sisters

Lisa K.

Buchanan

Non-standard

Achas

Burin

Tondo Manilla 1986

Jo

Burnell

Swimmers in the Dark

Maximilien

Callimanopulos

Thursday’s Child

Andrew

Campbell

The Mack and Peaches

Yvonne

Campbell

17 Steps to Four and a Half

Nicola

Cassidy

Wives Kill People Like You

Christine

Connor

Scratching the Surface

Frances

Corkey Thompson

Life, Abridged

Catherine

Coyote

Part of the Madness

Martin

Cromie

Moulded

Phil

Cummins

Scenes From A Rebellious Infancy

Sigrid

Daniel

The girl on the trimaran

Abby

Day

Safe Crossing

Penelope

Douglas

Epic Passions in Flamborough Road

Gerard

Duffy

The Postman’s Tumour

Annette

Edwards-Hill

How Not To Get Pregnant

Julie

Everton

Water, Yes, That

Rebecca

Ewan

Number THirteen

Alan

Falkingham

The last international virgin of Berlin

Ian

Fenwick

Who Dies First?

Doris

Ferleger

Jumpy Jewish Female Seeks …

Doris

Ferleger

Auto

Susan

Finlay

Roman Quartet

Tom

Finnigan

Castletown-kraut-haven

Hannah

Fitz

“In America, They Cut Your Head Off”:
Among the Hmong

Michael

Fleming

A Fool’s Errand

Jaclyn

Fowler

Susan Sontag: Epigraphs for a Memoir

Thomas

Frick

After what happened…

 

Geoghegan

Manchurian Love Story

Jeffrey

Gray

Closet

Margaret

Grundstein

The Bella Boys

George

Harding

The last Tango

Gail

Hartman

The Blue Wallpaper

Eva

Hibbs

All the women are ‘Mommy’

Catherine

Higgins-Moore

A Bit of Craic – extract from WIP

Esther

Hoad

Retreat to the Trees

Sara

Hodgkinson

That Was

Euwan

Hodgson

Grafted Mandarin

Allison

Hong Merrill

The Infinite Curse of a Paralysed Heart

BARBARA

HUNT

Trixie

Ian

Inglis

What Are Young Men to Rocks and Mountains?

Maan

Jalal

The Cure

Kent

Jarratt

The Road To Salamanca

John Martin

Johnson

Cartographies of the Heart

Caitriona

Kelly

When I Was A Boy

Colin

Kerr

The Scar

Sarah

Lawson

Inner Core

Miki

Lentin

All the Other Small Devotions

Sue

Li

The Mother Gin Stole

Alexandra

Loeb

To Do

James

Lough

The day the pope saved my life

Michael

Lowis

Seven Meals With My Father

Carinne

Luck

Don’t Waste Food

Lili

luo

What made all the difference

Ann

Luttrell

They talk about the gift of sight….

Judith

Macdonald

Rectory Girl

Deborah

Mack

The Blue Breast is Banished to Outer Space

S. A.

MacLeod

Catching My Death

Lynn

Macwhinnie

Breaking The Cycle

Kate

Manning

Planetary Spread

Caragh

Maxwell

Homecomng

Robert

Maxwell

Fiendish

Bill

McBean

Buck Rabbit

Noelle

McCarthy

The One That Got Away

Alan

McCormick

Leg Man

Alan

McCormick

Hugh

caroline

mccoy

JUST ANOTHER DAY ON THE PLANET:
Life in a Series of Hot Flashes

Deborah

McCutchen

Orange People Tea

Jim

McDonald

Regeneration

Laura-Blaise

McDowell

The Sun always Shone

Veronica

McGivney

Crossing Borders

Fiona

Meehan

Snake Ball

Holly

Menino

The Man Who Would Be John Irving

Meredith

Meyers

Her Body, At Rest

Julia

Motyka

Catch Me If You Can

Julia

Motyka

Father

Shira

Nayman

Tessi

Shira

Nayman

The Fortuneteller

Eileen

O’Connor

Days With Ulanova

Fiona

O’Connor

The Contract

Jim

O’Connor

No Place, Home.

Jack

O’Donnell

Oklahoma!

Maureen

O’Neill

Eloise

Jenny

Ochera

War is not Suitable for Children

Judith

O’Connor

Let Me Take You Down ‘Cause I’m Going

James

Patterson

The Poker

JeanAnn

Pollard

Turn, Kaleidoscope

Alyson

Porter

To Hitch Or Not To Hitch

catryn

power

The Salmon

adrienne

Quinn

What Do We Need To Know

Denver David

Robinson

The Merry-Go-Round

Elizabeth

Rockwell

Keys

Cynthia

Rogerson

Grandview

John Michael

Ruskovich

Please don’t die in California if you’re an Afghan

Bashir

Sakhawarz

Traveling With Demons

Habie

Schwarz

Home

Nancy

Slattery

Hull 1973 – 74

Ruskin

Smith

November 1983

Knight

Son

Tarah

Alexander

Sparrow

Apparitions

Cathy

Stacchini

Nude Beach

Patricia

Stacey

Night Worker Sleeping

Royston

Tester

One Thousand Cranes

Mary

Thompson

Take Two

Vivian

Thonger

REMAINS

Lily

Todd

A Crow

Paul

Tylak

Elon’s Dragon

Donna

Ward

Scenes from a Colonial Education, Johannesburg 1973

Lynnda

Wardle

Remembering My Visit To Louise Bourgeois

Charles

Williams

The Worst City in America

Jonathan

Wolf

It’s Always an Argument

Amy

Wright

Find Daddy

Gabra

Zackman

The Bolsheviks Are Coming

Boryana

Zeitz

 

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