Competition Judge Carlo Gebler has reached his decisions on the winners. The ten memoirs he has chosen will be published in the 2016 Fish Anthology. The Anthology will be launched at the West Cork Literary Festival in July.
WINNERS: Short Memoir Prize 2016
1st
The Way I Tell It by Angela Readman (Newcastle, England)
Bleak, affecting, simple, pure, absolutely convincing, and also complete; it told me everything from start to finish that I needed to know and there’s nothing in the material that requires amplification. The opposite of this is also true: there’s nothing here that should be subtracted either. The writer of this piece is completely in control of the material. The piece is easy to read but I know an enormous amount was required to get it to that stage.
2nd
Dead Hand by Gwen Sayers (Harrow, England)
An astonishing slice of memoir that neatly and ingeniously combines crime, sleuthing and deep personal experience of the South African public health system. Rivetting, disturbing, compelling.
3rd
Still Life with Cemetery by Teresa Hudson
This is a complex and complicated narrative that combines fraught personal family history (fraught because of the narrator’s family’s involvement in slavery in the American South) with a description of how, in America, the unhappy past is remembered or not, now, in the early twenty-first century. The writer’s ambition was admirable and the writer’s honesty was searing.
Runners-up:
This is the Boat that Dad Built by Jane Fraser (Swansea, Wales)
Moon Over River, 1956 by John Killeen (Ireland)
Tell It On The Mountain by Eileen P. Keane (Ireland)
Burning Bridge by Barry McKinley
First Kiss by Sarah Leigh (Cheshire, England)
Stepfathers by Sarah Tirri
Setting the Water by Diane Simmons
SHORLIST: Short Memoir Prize 2016
TITLE |
First Name |
Surname |
Hold Very Tight Please |
Geraldine |
Anslow |
The Who, December 3, 1979 |
Mike |
Ashmore |
Skeleton in the Closet (a bio-vignette) |
Bjel |
Bakker |
Airport – Blackbushe |
Mark |
Blackburn |
Festival for a Goddess |
Terese |
Brasen |
Happy as a Pig |
Tracy |
Brighten |
Jailtime |
Jay |
Bugg |
Dormit in Pace |
Aran |
Burrows |
The Visitors |
Alan |
Coley |
Yellow House On The High Side |
Celeste |
Cooper |
The Visitation |
Marion |
Crouchman |
The Name Game |
Jackie |
Davis-Martin |
The Year of the Worm |
Fiona |
Deverell |
Dear Steven |
Susan |
Dillon |
Escape Velocity or |
Lisa |
Duggan |
Trial by Fire |
Janet |
Duignan |
Cynic |
Chris |
Fay |
The Last Day |
Stuart |
Fisher |
Hush Little Baby |
Cathy |
Foustanellis |
Gone Away with Marilyn |
JONATHAN |
FRANK |
This is the Boat that Dad Built |
Jane |
Fraser |
The Color Pink |
Diana |
Gittins |
Blue Hills and Chalk Bones |
Sinéad |
Gleeson |
Parties, Pianos and Plumbing |
Sheila |
Gray |
Begin then |
John |
Gredler |
Church Point, December 2015 |
Winton |
Higgins |
September Spam, 2014 |
Richard |
Holeton |
Still Life with Cemetery: |
Teresa |
Hudson |
We Are Going To Be Rich |
Louise |
Ihringer |
LIVING WITH ANTI-SEMITISM |
Renate |
Justin |
Go Tell It On The Mountain |
Eileen |
Keane |
Moon over River, 1956 |
John |
Killeen |
The Way To Go |
William |
Lannigan |
First Kiss |
Sarah |
Leigh |
Confessions of a Fruit Thief |
Cathy |
Leonard |
Hatching an Avocado |
GAY |
LYNCH |
When Knute Rockne Died |
Sheila |
MacAvoy |
War Games |
Andrew |
Maynard |
The Cage |
John |
McBride |
Burning Bridge |
Barry |
McKinley |
CECI NE PAS UNE PIPE: |
Michael |
McManus |
European Starling |
Mark D. |
Miller |
The Meaning of Home |
Melissa |
Neff |
trashman loves maree |
warwick |
Newnham |
Teasie and Paddy |
Jane |
O’Neill |
War is not suitable for Children |
Judith |
O’Connor |
In Harm’s Way |
Mary |
Pecaut |
Children Are Easy |
Katerina |
protopsaltis |
The Way I Tell It |
angela |
readman |
Some Bits of Broken China |
Sheelagh |
Russell-Brown |
Eve’s Choice: The Power of Apples |
Esther Phoebe |
Rutter |
Dead Hand |
Gwen |
Sayers |
The Great Bed-Switching Caper |
debby |
seguin |
‘Friend, when you die….’ |
Barry |
Sheils |
Setting the Water |
Diane |
Simmons |
A Pact |
Lynn |
Smailes |
One Eyed in Juarez |
Morgan |
Smith |
B.L.E.S. |
wilma |
stark |
What if the Pastor’s Wife Wants to Quit? |
Carrie |
Stephens |
Enduring Passion |
Riba |
Taylor |
Stepfathers |
Sarah |
Tirri |
Bath Café Days |
Stella |
Townson |
The Head’s Office |
Angus |
Walker |
Good Girl |
Alice |
Walsh |
Songs to be Heard |
angela |
yeoman |
LONGLIST: Short Memoir Prize 2016
TITLE |
First Name |
Surname |
In a Mill Town |
Michelle |
Adserias |
Hold Very Tight Please |
Geraldine |
Anslow |
Archipelago – A Memoir |
Maria |
Arena |
The Who, December 3, 1979 |
Mike |
Ashmore |
Skeleton in the Closet (a bio-vignette) |
Bjel |
Bakker |
An Irish American Woman in Australia |
Bjel |
Bakker |
The Dentists Visit |
James |
Balian |
Bye-bye Mzungu |
Jo |
Barker Scott |
Brujería |
Akesha |
Baron |
Sunday School |
Amanda |
Bell |
LONG SENTENCES |
jessic |
berens |
Help! My Bucket List has Sprung a Leak |
Laurie |
Best |
Mr. Iyenaga and I |
Kate |
Birchenough |
Airport – Blackbushe |
Mark |
Blackburn |
Ashes to Ashes |
Mark |
Blackburn |
Taking Tea with Joseph Needham |
Michael |
Bloor |
I Learned to play the Piano at age 91. |
Alma |
Bond |
Letter WIth No Address |
Sandi |
Bowie |
Festival for a Goddess |
Terese |
Brasen |
Rommel’s Left Hook |
David |
Brennan |
Not A Little Us |
Carol |
BrickStock |
Happy as a Pig |
Tracy |
Brighten |
The Quilt |
michelle |
brock |
Only 400 Miles |
Jane |
Bryce |
Jailtime |
Jay |
Bugg |
Hoover Dam |
Jacob |
Burris |
Dormit in Pace |
Aran |
Burrows |
Still Life |
Carol |
Caffrey |
Bedrock |
Deborah |
Cameron |
Soul Crows |
michael |
casey |
Hitching on a combine harvester |
Nicola |
Cassidy |
T-Shirts For Sale |
Elisa |
Chalem |
Esso Blues |
Mark |
Clarke |
THE COLONEL’S WIFE |
Susanna |
Clayson |
In My Father’s Store |
Elaine |
Cohen |
Drawn From Life |
Catherine |
Coldstream |
The Visitors |
Alan |
Coley |
The Cure |
Monica |
Connell |
Yellow House On The High Side |
Celeste |
Cooper |
Memoir: Voyage to Nigeria |
Patrick |
Courtney |
Going Away and Coming Hame |
Ann |
Craig |
The Bones of a Story |
Martin |
Cromie |
The Visitation |
Marion |
Crouchman |
Dead Kittens |
Alexandra |
D’Arcy |
Unravelling Dad |
Rebecca |
Dalton |
Maternal Lines |
Lauren |
Daniels |
An English Girl in New York |
Rosie |
Dastgir |
When Egypt Was in Israel Land |
Catherine |
Davidson |
The Name Game |
Jackie |
Davis-Martin |
Lux Sit |
Anna |
Denisch |
The Year of the Worm |
Fiona |
Deverell |
Dear Steven |
Susan |
Dillon |
In An Instant |
Melissa |
Disharoon |
Smelling of Roses |
Jim |
Ditchfield |
The Hungry Slavs |
Bosi |
Djukic |
Salt: A World History |
Mira |
Dougherty-Johnson |
On The Way |
Diana |
Dr. Radovan |
Control |
Laura |
Dromerick |
Escape Velocity or |
Lisa |
Duggan |
Trial by Fire |
Janet |
Duignan |
The Outcrop |
Yvonne |
Egan-Petzal |
Shit called tragedy |
Sally |
Elsbury |
It begins and ends with the sea |
Michelle |
Elvy |
Much More Important than That |
Oliver |
Farry |
Cynic |
Chris |
Fay |
The Last Day |
Stuart |
Fisher |
You Try Not To |
Lauren |
Foley |
Hush Little Baby |
Cathy |
Foustanellis |
Gone Away with Marilyn |
JONATHAN |
FRANK |
This is the Boat that Dad Built |
Jane |
Fraser |
Words |
Jane |
Fraser |
A Tale of Two Cities |
Jane |
Fraser |
A Numbers Game |
Jane |
Fraser |
Here to Get My Daddy out of Jail |
Hester |
Furey |
Keeping Up the Conversation |
Linda |
Gibson |
The Color Pink |
Diana |
Gittins |
Mercury Retrograde |
Diana |
Gittins |
Blue Hills and Chalk Bones |
Sinéad |
Gleeson |
Memoir Of A Dream Interpreter |
Dan |
Gollub |
Sweetness and Light and Bump in the Night |
Dolores |
Gough |
Parties, Pianos and Plumbing |
Sheila |
Gray |
Begin then |
John |
Gredler |
What The Stranger Gave Them |
Alyson |
Hallett |
Outside the Story |
JoeAnn |
Hart |
Mottsy |
James |
Hartley |
Skin deep |
J.D. |
Hellsinger |
The trouble with being born to be alive |
Marcy Rae |
Henry |
Church Point, December 2015 |
Winton |
Higgins |
September Spam, 2014 |
Richard |
Holeton |
Do That Again |
Sue |
Holroyd |
Chin Chin! |
Alannah |
Hopkin |
Still Life with Cemetery: |
Teresa |
Hudson |
We Are Going To Be Rich |
Louise |
Ihringer |
English Pigs. |
Lauren |
Iozzi |
Stations of the Cross |
Jason |
Irwin |
An Unrepentant Itinerant |
Migel |
Jayasinghe |
Kilcolman A Visitation |
Doreena |
Jennings |
WHAT MEN WANT |
Sandra |
Jensen |
The Carnivore |
Lone Veirup |
Johansen |
LEARNING TO FLY |
Elizabeth |
Jones |
LIVING WITH ANTI-SEMITISM |
Renate |
Justin |
Sometimes You Have Elevation |
marilyn |
katz |
Go Tell It On The Mountain |
eileen |
keane |
Moon over River, 1956 |
John |
Killeen |
Vindication at The Ritz |
John |
Killeen |
The Desert and a Pack of Lucky Strikes |
Chris |
Knodel |
Festivals |
Simon |
Korner |
Shreds |
Peter |
Lamb |
Primary Education |
Kathleen |
Langstroth |
The Way To Go |
William |
Lannigan |
Mexico–Summer of ’69 |
William |
Lannigan |
A Father’s Flowers |
Frank |
Lee |
The summer Murray Shackshaft ate the laburnum |
Janet |
Lees |
First Kiss |
Sarah |
Leigh |
Ruminations About Murder from Attica State Prison |
John |
Lennon |
Confessions of a Fruit Thief |
Cathy |
Leonard |
Crocodile Tears |
Rozanna |
Lilley |
Copy That |
Angela |
Long |
Hatching an Avocado |
GAY |
LYNCH |
When Knute Rockne Died |
Sheila |
MacAvoy |
Dirty Silver on the Matt Black Rock |
Niamh |
MacCabe |
To Thee do we send up our sighs |
Niamh |
MacCabe |
The colour of night |
Lorna |
Malone |
Fear of the Storm |
Louise |
Mangos |
Gardening at Night |
Una |
Mannion |
Call of the Peacock |
Sherri |
Matthews |
War Games |
Andrew |
Maynard |
The Cage |
John |
McBride |
Rendering Elizabeth |
Mairead |
McCann |
SAINT FRANCIS |
Alan |
McCormick |
A History of My Family in Three Soft Fruits |
Gareth |
McKeown |
Burning Bridge |
Barry |
McKinley |
CECI NE PAS UNE PIPE: |
Michael |
McManus |
PATER MEUM – MY FATHER |
Marie |
McMillan |
The Test |
Val |
Melhop |
Through the Wringer |
Margaret |
Milardo |
European Starling |
Mark D. |
Miller |
The Waiting Game |
Jessie |
Miller |
Miranda and her Madam |
Jan |
Moran Neil |
Living With the Dead |
deirdre |
murray |
The Ark |
Darlin’ |
Neal |
The Meaning of Home |
Melissa |
Neff |
trashman loves maree |
warwick |
newnham |
The Red Dress |
Bo |
Niles |
Memoir of a Teenage Rebel in the GPO |
Richard |
O’Leary |
Teasie and Paddy |
Jane |
O’Neill |
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES |
MARIS |
O’ROURKE |
War is not suitable for Children |
Judith |
OConnor |
Leprechauns and Antlers |
Judith |
OConnor |
Ski Thrills |
Judith |
OConnor |
In Harm’s Way |
Mary |
Pecaut |
Class Divisions |
Jeanine |
Pfeiffer |
Children Are Easy |
Katerina |
protopsaltis |
The Way I Tell It |
angela |
readman |
My Island Home |
Peter |
Rodgers |
Remembering Memphis |
Peter |
Rodgers |
Some Bits of Broken China |
Sheelagh |
Russell-Brown |
Eve’s Choice: The Power of Apples |
Esther Phoebe |
Rutter |
Cockpit Fly. |
Gretchen |
Ryan |
Baba Ghaibi |
Bashir |
Sakhawarz |
Welcome to Canada |
Victoria |
Sarne |
Dead Hand |
Gwen |
Sayers |
The Great Bed-Switching Caper |
debby |
seguin |
‘Friend, when you die….’ |
Barry |
Sheils |
Setting the Water |
Diane |
Simmons |
From Shore to Sea |
Elizabeth |
Simpson |
Sarah Wrestles Obedience |
Elizabeth |
Sinclair |
A Pact |
Lynn |
Smailes |
One Eyed in Juarez |
Morgan |
Smith |
Bite |
Carly |
Smith |
Fakhrul and I |
Hilary |
Standing |
B.L.E.S. |
wilma |
stark |
A BLAST OF CHRISTMAS PAST |
wilma |
stark |
What if the Pastor’s Wife Wants to Quit? |
Carrie |
Stephens |
I Can’t Find My Teeth |
Trudy |
Swenson |
Enduring Passion |
Riba |
Taylor |
TWO WEEKS ONE SUMMER |
JANET |
TEAL DANIEL |
The last days of summer |
Mary |
Thompson |
You (and His Demons on Leashes) |
Taylor |
Thornton |
Stepfathers |
Sarah |
Tirri |
Bath Café Days |
Stella |
Townson |
Wait |
Elsa |
Valmidiano |
Staying Alive |
Alexis |
VanDeventer |
The Head’s Office |
Angus |
Walker |
Good Girl |
Alice |
Walsh |
Our Shop |
Liz |
Walsh |
Home From Home |
Chris |
Weldon |
Brothers Katrin |
Bradley |
Wester |
First Year Corridors |
Catherine |
White |
This is Not the Way Home |
Jo |
Wilko |
Knowing |
Pamela |
Woolford |
We Are Waiting |
Ruth |
Wyer |
Songs to be Heard |
angela |
yeoman |
First Kiss |
Jill |
Young |
‘… 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