The Annual Fish Anthology contains the winning stories and poems from it's literary prizes. All anthologies are listed below along with a selection of other publications from Fish.
Click on the title for more information about a particular book.
Click on the book image to buy a book on-line.
The more recent Anthologies may also be ordered from book shops.
We hope you enjoy browsing through our catalogue. You can see some stories from these Anthologies in our Short Stories to Read Online section. If you have any queries about our previous short story collections you can email us at info@fishpublishing.com
The Fish Anthology 2010
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.
There was little to separate the ten prizewinners from the rest, but that little was what I was looking for. There is a range to the ten chosen poems, each is strong in a different way.
Matthew Sweeney, Poetry Judge.
2009 Ten Pint Ted
I 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
All of these poems, in their different ways, stand properly for themselves. Saluting their subjects and their readers, they stand up to their responsibilities. They stand, you might say to attention.
- Peter Fallon
2008 Harlem River Blues
The entries into this year's Fish Short Story Prize were universally strong
and good and from these the judges have selected winners, we believe,
of exceptional virtue.
- Carlo Gebler
2007 A Paper Heart Is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail
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
(Read extracts on-line)
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
Stimulating and interesting. The poems are terrific - Michael McCarthy
2006 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
2005 The Mountains of Mars
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
Fascinating and enjoyable. - Julia Neuberger
2004 Spoonface
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
2003 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
2002 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
2001 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
2000 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.
Every story is interesting, fascinating, haunting in one way or another.
- Julia Darling
1999 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
The Stories in this book are wonderful - fresh and invigorating.
They are a fine sample of what is best in writing today. - Frank McCourt
1998 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
1997 Dog Days
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
1996 The Stranger
The writers in this collection can write short stories . . .
their quality
is the only thing they have in common.
- Roddy Doyle
1995 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.
Read this book - their talent speaks for itself.
- Clem Cairns.
Other Publications from Fish Publishing
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.
Small City Blues numbers 1 to 51 - a novel by Martin Kelleher
Kelleher is a craftsman, moving effortlessly between
love and violence, hope and despair, sadness and humour.
This is a notable debut.
- Eamonn Sweeney
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.
The Woman Who Swallowed the Book of Kells
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?
- Eamonn Sweeney.