On behalf of all of us at Fish, we congratulate the 10 winners who made it to the Anthology, and to those writers who made the long and short-lists, well done too. Thank you to Qian Julie Wang, for the time and enthusiasm that she put into selecting the winners.
Selected by Qian Julie Wang.
FIRST
Thirteen Ways of Interrogating An Incident:
by Wally Suphap (USA)
This is masterful in craft, content, exploration, and style.
Qian Julie Wang
SECOND
Saddo: by Sheena Wilkinson (N. Ireland)
I felt your words in my bones … exquisitely crafted …
Qian Julie Wang
THIRD
Two Bastards: by David Ralph (Ireland)
… you brought James back to life with your gift … keep writing.
Qian Julie Wang
HONORARY MENTIONS
For Chantal Akerman: by Francesca Humphreys (UK)
Beautifully meditative … powerful …
Qian Julie Wang
Blame the Milkman: by Diane Parnell (USA)
You had me from the opening: “We descend like fleas.” … truly magical.
Qian Julie Wang
Forgetting: by Elizabeth Whyatt (UK)
… insights into the body, trauma, and childhood …
Qian Julie Wang
In the Summer Before Third Grade: by Jaclyn Fowler (USA)
… brought Terri to life … I love the structure and craft of your piece.
Qian Julie Wang
A Cold Night in January: by Jupiter Jones (Wales)
(Stephanie Colburn´s memoir ´Milkweed´ was withdrawn and A Cold Night in January by Jupiter Jones takes its place.)
The Mole: by Ruth Rosengarten (Israel/UK)
… an exquisite piece.
Qian Julie Wang
Ten Stages of Reproduction: by Beverly Orth (USA)
… an intimate, honest portrait of pregnancy and motherhood … deployed perfectly. I can’t wait to see what else you write.
Qian Julie Wang
Wally Suphap was born to Thai-Chinese parents in Bangkok, moved to Los Angeles for K-12, begrudgingly worked as a corporate lawyer in New York and Hong Kong, and now lives on the border of Manhattan’s Morningside Heights. An award-winning queer rights advocate whose activism work was profiled in The Guardian, Yahoo, and The Financial Times, Wally is a Lenfest Fellow and Teaching Fellow at Columbia’s MFA writing program and founding managing editor of The Plentitudes.
Twitter: @WSuphap IG: @WSuphap
Sheena Wilkinson has won many awards for her novels and short stories. Described in The Irish Times in 2015 as ‘one of our foremost writers for young people’, She has recently decided to try her hand at writing the truth instead of making stuff up, and this is her first published memoir piece. Sheena lives near Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland and when she’s not writing she’s usually dog-walking or singing, sometimes both at once.
David Ralph writes fiction and non-fiction. His stories and essays have appeared in Dublin Review, New Irish Writing, Southword, Litro, and elsewhere. He is the 2021 recipient of the Words Ireland National Mentoring award for Dublin City Libraries. He lives in Dublin.
Francesca Humphreys was born and raised in London and trained as a singer and actor. This year, she is completing a Masters in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. In her writing, she examines the scope of her appetites, the role that hunger has played in shaping her identity and the effects of what she calls ‘inherited immigrant syndrome’. When not writing, Francesca teaches high-octane indoor cycling classes.
Diane Vonglis Parnell grew up on a remote farm in Western New York with nine siblings. She has spent most of her adult life on the Central Coast of California. Diane serves as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer for abused children in her community and lives a minimalist’s life in a 250 square foot cottage. Reading, writing and red wine are her favorite things.
Anna Whyatt is a writer, sculptor and dramaturg, her international and national cultural regeneration work has contributed to award -winning projects such as Tate Modern, the UK Film Council and Chelsea Flower Show. Her fiction and non- fiction has been shortlisted several times for international and national literary awards. She is currently working on a political mystery based on true events 1935-45 and a Kurt Weill ballet linked to the experiences of refugees. Her sculpture has been shown in UK, US and Poland.
Jaclyn Maria Fowler is a storyteller at heart, coming from a long line of raconteurs and wanderers who trace their lineage back to the west coast of Ireland. She, too, travels to write and writes to travel, following in the footsteps of her ancestors. To pay for her obsessions, she works as Chair of the English Department at APUS. She is the author of “It is Myself that I Remake” and “No One Radiates Love Alone.”
Jupiter Jones lives in Wales and writes short and flash fictions. She is the two-time winner of the Colm Tóibín International Prize, and her stories have been published by Aesthetica, Brittle Star, Fish, Scottish Arts, and Parthian. Her first novella-in-flash, The Death and Life of Mrs Parker was published by Ad Hoc Fiction and her second, Lovelace Flats by Reflex Press. jupiter-jones@outlook.com @jupiterjonz
Ruth Rosengarten is a writer and artist who thinks the word collage describes her work in both areas. She is the only urban Jew in a certain village in Cambridgeshire where she does not commune with nature. She has published extensively in the fields of art history and art criticism, before turning, in lockdown, to memoir writing. Her book Second Chance: My Life in Things will be published by Open Book later this year.
Beverly J. Orth is a reformed attorney with two degrees unrelated to the world of creative writing. She attends writing and literature classes at Portland State University, an institution that has twice refused to admit her to its MFA program. Yet, she remains undaunted by its rejection. Her work has appeared in precisely five literary journals. She lives in Portland, Oregon (U.S.), with her four sewing machines, three typewriters, one husband, and no pets.
SHORT-LIST (36, in alphabetical order. There were 859 entries)
Title |
FIRST NAME |
SURNAME |
Teeth |
Morgan |
Barbour |
Nemea |
L S |
Beveridge |
Milkweed |
Stephanie |
Colburn |
Will There Be Enough Love In The Bank? |
Tamsin |
Cottis |
134 Days |
Phil |
Cummins |
Making A Glass Of Water |
Eamon |
Doggett |
Life under water: A hearing loss journey |
Rye |
Dreyer |
Bungalow People |
Thea |
Elmsley |
All the Bright Stars |
Sally |
Fox |
One Year the Pond |
James |
Friel |
Romantic Landscape |
Amy |
Glynn |
Where The Dust Lies (A Memoir) |
Melinda |
Goodman |
A Welly Boot of Vodka |
Mat |
Greenfield |
All That’s Left Behind |
Anya |
Hastwell |
The State I’m In |
Phyllis |
Hollenbeck |
Knifepoint |
Anne m |
Jones |
A Cold Night in January |
Jupiter |
Jones |
Time Present |
Simon |
Korner |
Complete All Forms |
Kathleen |
Langstroth |
Varifocals |
Miki |
Lentin |
More Than Nineteen Thousand Doorways |
Steven |
Lewis |
NOT KNOWING |
Peter |
Lindley |
sic transit gloria mundi |
Robert |
Maxwell |
On the March from Selma to Montgomery |
Suzanne |
McConnell |
The Woods |
Kerry |
McNamara |
Collision |
Lindsay |
Nicholson |
Born Again |
Bruce |
Powell |
Two Bastards |
David |
Ralph |
Two Towels and A Cardboard Box |
Cheryl |
Reggio |
The Mole: A Story in 62 Sestudes |
Ruth |
Rosengarten |
The Ward |
Nicole |
Scobie |
A Short Stay in Paradise |
Michelle |
Scorziello |
Waiting Rooms |
Kay |
Smith |
All American |
Kate |
Vieira |
Blurry Vision 2020 |
Dorothy |
Walton |
Miss Brodie’s Girls |
Lynnda |
Wardle |
LONG-LIST (115. In Alphabetical Order. There were 859 entries)
TITLE |
FIRST NAME |
SURNAME |
Harvests |
Mara |
Adamitz Scrupe |
Ghosts |
Sara |
Atwood |
Teeth |
Morgan |
Barbour |
Physio |
Paul |
Bassett Davies |
The Lifting of Abu Simbel |
Julian |
Beecroft |
The Strange Legacy of a Diminutive Ghost |
Anneke |
Bender |
Watching The Boats Come In |
Susan |
Bennett |
Nemea |
L S |
Beveridge |
Quack Quack |
Shell |
Bird |
Sidney and the Primroses |
Mary |
Black |
Rookie Teacher in a Red Dress |
Wendy |
Breckon |
10 Under 70 |
Jim |
Brennan |
Milkweed |
Stephanie |
Colburn |
The Veil |
Samantha |
Colicchio |
Will There Be Enough Love In The Bank? |
Tamsin |
Cottis |
Getting to Like the Germans |
Jenny |
Cozens |
134 Days |
Phil |
Cummins |
Man From Atlantis |
Phil |
Cummins |
Icarus |
Phil |
Cummins |
Mrs Alleman. |
Isanna |
Curwen |
Between Two Piers |
David |
Danbury |
Making A Glass Of Water |
Eamon |
Doggett |
Life under water: A hearing loss journey |
Rye |
Dreyer |
Bungalow People |
Thea |
Elmsley |
The Merry Widow´s Club |
Sandi |
Fikuart |
Labor’s Great Reporter |
Jean |
Fleming |
Conduct: Unsatisfactory |
Amelia |
Fletcher |
In the Summer Before Third Grade |
Jaclyn |
Fowler |
All the Bright Stars |
Sally |
Fox |
One Year the Pond |
James |
Friel |
All Thumbs |
Jack |
Garvey |
Romantic Landscape |
Amy |
Glynn |
Last Night With the Light On |
Rebecca |
Godina |
Where The Dust Lies (A Memoir) |
Melinda |
Goodman |
Losing it |
Liz |
Granirer |
Scorpio Versus Leo |
Colton |
Green |
A Welly Boot of Vodka |
Mat |
Greenfield |
Madagascar Memories |
Jill |
Hadfield |
The Unseen |
Stephen |
Haines |
Our Language |
Holli |
Harms |
Do Not Tell a Soul |
Catherine |
Hartnett |
All the Beautiful Houses |
Maggie |
Harris |
All That’s Left Behind |
Anya |
Hastwell |
Chameleon |
Sylvia |
Hayashi |
A Muse at Arm’s Length |
Louis |
Hemmings |
Salvaging Sweetness, a Memoir – an extract. |
Esther |
Hoad |
The State I’m In |
Phyllis |
Hollenbeck |
Knifepoint |
Anne M |
Jones |
A Cold Night in January |
Jupiter |
Jones |
Waking Tommy |
Caitriona |
Kelly |
This Old Caged Bird Can Still Sing |
Bridgett |
Kendall |
Uncommon Threads |
Carmen |
Kew |
Time Present |
Simon |
Korner |
Escape |
Laura |
Kyle |
Complete All Forms |
Kathleen |
Langstroth |
Title |
First Name |
Last Name |
Varifocals |
Miki |
Lentin |
For Chantel Ackerman |
Francesca |
Leonie |
More Than Nineteen Thousand Doorways |
Steven |
Lewis |
NOT KNOWING |
Peter |
Lindley |
A White Plaster Cat |
Paul |
Marion |
When the Band Broke Up |
Debra |
Marquart |
sic transit gloria mundi |
Robert |
Maxwell |
Athalee |
Robert |
Maxwell |
The Dust That is Made Up of Her |
Tracy |
Maylath |
On the March from Selma to Montgomery |
Suzanne |
McConnell |
Psychics! |
Alan |
McCormick |
Perihelion |
Paul |
McGranaghan |
The Woods |
Kerry |
McNamara |
For Every Bear That Ever There Was |
Geoffrey |
Mead |
Purgatory Party |
Natalie |
Michaels |
On anaphylaxis |
Barbara |
Mogerley |
Dear Diary |
Molly |
Mogren Katt |
Tadpole from the Epic Spawning |
Marilyn |
Moriarty |
@3ftinpm |
Barbara |
Mossberg |
Collision |
Lindsay |
Nicholson |
ALP 650 |
Helen |
O’Neill |
The Ten Stages of Reproduction |
Beverly |
Orth |
Ambush |
James |
Page |
Why She Cried |
Larry |
Pankey |
Blame the Milkman |
Diane |
Parnell |
Give me a child until he is seven .. |
Carl |
Parsons |
Ask Me How It Works: frequently asked |
Deepa |
Paul |
In the restaurant of the Athenée Palace |
Lilian |
Pizzichini |
Born Again |
Bruce |
Powell |
Two Bastards |
David |
Ralph |
My Mother’s Secrets |
Cheryl |
Reed |
Two Towels and A Cardboard Box |
Cheryl |
Reggio |
The Ghost |
Emma |
Rennison |
Ringing of the Bell |
Marc |
Revere |
The Mole: A Story in 62 Sestudes |
Ruth |
Rosengarten |
The Other Side of the Tracks in 1971 |
Gerald |
Ryan |
My August |
Peter |
Samis |
The Ward |
Nicole |
Scobie |
A Short Stay in Paradise |
Michelle |
Scorziello |
My Little Yza-Baby Story |
Yza |
Shady |
Waiting Rooms |
Kay |
Smith |
A Suitable Dress |
Maxine |
Smitheram |
Lost Language |
Ann |
Spence |
The Murder Plot |
Charity |
Starrett |
There are moments which cry out to be fulfilled |
Nina |
Stochniol |
Thirteen Ways of Interrogating an Incident |
Wally |
Suphap |
Heart in Two Worlds |
Chris |
Thomson |
All American |
Kate |
Vieira |
All-American |
Kate |
Vieira |
The Longest Day of the Year |
Kate |
Vieira |
Blurry Vision 2020 |
Dorothy |
Walton |
Miss Brodie’s Girls |
Lynnda |
Wardle |
Forgetting |
Elizabeth |
Whyatt |
Saddo |
Sheena |
Wilkinson |
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?
More