Most Recent Publication from Fish
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12 Miles Out was selected by David Mitchell as the winner of the Fish Unpublished Novel Award.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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Catalogue of Anthologies
The Annual Fish Anthology contains the winning submissions from its writing contests.
1994 saw the first Fish Anthology, publishing eleven new writers. Now, forty new writers are published annually in the anthology. We have amassed a considerable collection of excellent anthologies (see below), showcasing hundreds of fine writers. Many of these have gone on to become household names.
We look forward to discovering new talent every year through our competitions.
Fish Anthology 2012 more info
A 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.
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The Fish Anthology 2011 more info
Reading 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
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(to buy pdf see more info)
The Fish Anthology 2010 more info
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 more info
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
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2008 Harlem River Blues more info
The 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
2007 A Paper Heart Is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail more info
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)
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2006 Grandmother, Girl, Wolf and Other Stories more info
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
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2006 All the King's Horses - Anthology of Historical Short Stories
more info
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 more info
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
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2004 Spoonface more info
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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2003 Feathers & Cigarettes more info
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 more info
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 more info
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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2000 Five O'Clock Shadow more info
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 more info
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 more info
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 Day more info
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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1996 The Stranger more info
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 more info
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
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.
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 -
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?
- Eamonn Sweeney.