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Poetry Prize 2023: RESULTS

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 


 

Winners:

Here are the 10 winners, as chosen by judge Billy Collins, to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2023.

The Anthology will  be launched as part of the West Cork Literary Festival, (The Maritime Hotel, Bantry, West Cork – Tuesday 11th July – 18.00.) All are welcome!

Second prize winner, Mary O´Donnell, is awarded a weeks in residence at Anam Cara Writer’s and Artist’s Retreat

 
Billy Collins

Billy Collins

Comments on the winning three poems are from Billy Collins (below), who we sincerely thank for lending his time and experience to judge the prize.

Congratulations to these ten poets, and also to those whose poems made the short and long-lists. Total entry was 2,348. 

 

More about the 10 winning poets (link)

The Ten Winners:

 

FIRST                                                                                                 

THE SCENE WITHOUT by Winifred Hughes

This poem is subtle elegy which uses the familiar scene of a rural backyard to evoke the absence of a loved one.  The flora and flora are intimately rendered for nothing has changed, except a terrible sense of absence, creating a palpable split on what’s on either side of the window.  An accomplishment in understatement. – Billy Collins

 

SECOND

VECTORS IN KABUL by Mary O´Donnell

Here, the difficult subject of the forces denying girls an education in Afghanistan is approached at an angle by which the poet ingeniously mixes the language of science with the plight of the young students to form a kind of mathematics of intolerance.  The poem is timely as well as formally commendable. – Billy Collins

 

THIRD

EXTINCTION by Luisa A. Igloria      

A poem with a facility of movement, swinging from the Judas goat to Darwin, a dying dog, and ending with our own dead, how they linger and return.  What a pleasure to watch his poet’s mind at work, guiding us this way and that, then landing on our own experience with mortality.  A poem with many interests, including the reader. – Billy Collins

 

HONORARY MENTIONS (in no particular order):

 

Rosetta Pebble

by Tania Dain

 

Aground  

by Sharon Black

 

Emozioni

by Steph Ellen Feeney

 

I Explain Time Travel to my Son

by Peter Borchers

 

Park Protocol

by Scott Renzoni

 

No Items Match Your Search

by Catherine Spooner

 


Toccata for Spoons

by Daniel Lusk

 

 

 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS

Winifred Hughes is a reformed academic and active birder living in Princeton, NJ. The author of two chapbooks, as well as poems in scattered journals, she currently serves on the boards of two local environmental organizations and teaches courses in nature writing and ecopoetry. When she is not actually writing poems, she can be found leading bird walks and poking around in the local wetlands, or hanging out with her two grown sons.

 

Mary O’Donnell has published seventeen books since 1990. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Naas, Co Kildare, during 2022. Her eighth poetry collection is ‘Massacre of the Birds’ (Salmon). An essay, ‘My Mother in Drumlin Country’, was listed in Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2017 in Best American Essays (Mariner). People say she is a kick-ass creative writing teacher. She intends to write until the energy runs out, which it hasn’t—so far. Member of Aosdána. www.maryodonnell.com

 

Luisa A. Igloria enjoys drawing, hand-binding little books, experimenting with collage, trying out new recipes, and ripping out and re-starting knitting projects when she’s not writing or teaching. She adores figs, dumplings, and tango music. Originally from Baguio City, she makes her home in Norfolk VA and teaches English and Creative Writing in Old Dominion University’s MFA Creative Writing Program. Luisa is the 20th Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (2020-22), Emerita. www.luisaigloria.com

 

Tania Dain has spent her life filling notebooks with poems, stories, novels and plays. She studied Creative Writing at Manchester University and CitiLit, and is a member of the ZB writing group and the McGechie Duo. A secondary school teacher, her daily commute takes in – wonderfully – the fine oaks and wandering deer of Richmond Park. She is currently putting together her first collection of poetry, obligatory in a family of scribblers.

 

Sharon Black is from Glasgow and lives in a remote valley of the Cévennes mountains in France. Her prizes including The London Magazine Poetry Prizes 2019 and 2018. She has published 4 full collections of poetry and a pamphlet. Her latest collections are The Last Woman Born on the Island (Vagabond Voices, 2022), exploring Scotland’s culture and heritage, and The Red House(Drunk Muse, 2022), set in her adopted homeland. She is editor of Pindrop Press. www.sharonblack.co.uk

 

Steph Ellen Feeney was born in Louisiana, and raised in Texas. She grew up in a family of fishermen, musicians and drinkers, and still dabbles in all three. She is a Board Director of Art for Human Rights. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Review and Ink Sweat & Tears. These days, she calls Suffolk home.

 

Peter Borchers is a retired science teacher who has lived in South Africa, Malawi and Tasmania as well as the UK. He started writing poetry in later life once all the frenzy had died down.

 

Scott Renzoni is a poet & actor originally from Vermont, now based in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ekphrastic Review, KGB Bar Online Literary Review, Connecticut Poetry Review, the Library of Congress’ “Poetry 180” site, and others. Stage work has included everything from Shakespeare to farce and even a musical or two. A 4-time “Jeopardy!” champion, Renzo also works as a bartender and bookseller. 

 

Catherine Spooner recently returned to creative writing after a gap of many years. In 2021-2, she took a career break to complete an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow and in 2022, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Arvon Award from New Writing North. In her other life, she is an academic who writes about Gothic literature, culture and fashion. She is often found wearing black. 

 

Daniel Lusk is the winner of a Pushcart Prize for his genre-bending essay, “Bom.”  He is the author of eight poetry collections and other books, most recently Every Slow Thing, Farthings (eBook Yavanika Press, Bangalore), and The Shower Scene from Hamlet. Native of the prairie Midwest, and onetime preacher, sports writer, jazz singer, cowboy, teacher and NPR commentator, Daniel lives in Vermont (USA). He is married to Irish poet Angela (Goggins) Patten.

 

 


 

 

SHORT-LIST in alphabetical order. (68 poems. Total entry was 2,348) 

 

Ode to an Irish Minstrel

Mary Anne Eliza

Anderson

My father’s watch

Jennifer

Barber

Love You!

Angela

Beese

Aground

Sharon

Black

Asylum

Andy

Blackford

Sting of History

Rosalin

Blue

I explain time travel to my son

Peter

Borchers

Matryoshka

Partridge

Boswell

The Turn

Partridge

Boswell

Fences

Partridge

Boswell

My dad orders four drinks at a restaurant
on the Greek island of Zakynthos, 1987

Jeanette

Burton

Magic Tricks

Finola

Cahill

Abode

Joseph

Chamberlain

Shadowlands

Robert

Charlton

GRAFFITI

Alexandra

Corrin-Tachibana

Beast

Elena

Croitoru

Rosetta Pebble

Tania

Dain

Game. Set. Matched.

Deirdre

Devally

The Harp and Loom are String Sisters

Jane

Edmonds

Aubade

Birgit

Elston

Blocked Drains

Kate

Ennals

Latin Teacher

Frank

Farrelly

Emozioni

Stephanie

Feeney

Fishing Cooperative

Stephanie

Feeney

Spring’s sighting of a gator sunning itself
from the side of the road—

Amy

Fladeboe

On Reflection

Tom

Flaherty

Infinity curve, with cheesesteak

Stacey

Forbes

Fish Heaven

Sally

Fox

SORROW

Geoffrey

Gates

Bully

Alison

Gorman

The Urn

Alison

Gorman

The Nameless Gringos Get Drunk in Santiago
& Wind Up Working in the Vineyards

Jonathan

Greenhause

I Would Do Anything for Love

Anthony

Hanbury-Williams

TO BREAK ALIVE

Pauline

Holdstock

How the Goddess Artemus Gave Up War

Pamela

Hughes

The Scene Without

Winifred

Hughes

Extinction

Luisa A.

Igloria

While listening to NRK Klassik

Fin

Keegan

VOICE

Debbie

Knight

Oh No, Not the Beef Stroganoff!

Debbie

Knight

Paragard

Madeline

Lawler

anticipation of anaphylaxis

Róisín

Leggett-Bohan

After Making Love With The Feral Coyote

James

Lowell

Toccata for Spoons

Daniel

Lusk

The things you left behind

Jonathan

Marks

Cul-de-sac

Steve

Miell

1. laissez les bon temps rouler

Karla K

Morton

cake

Mary

Mulholland

VECTORS IN KABUL

Mary

O’Donnell

The scene on repeat in my mind for the past ten years

Lauren

O’Donovan

Ageing Poet in a Shop

Mary

O´Gorman

Sweet Boy

Jane

Otto

Why the Child Is Immortal

Christina

Park

Rogue males

Tim

Relf

Park Protocol

Scott

Renzoni

Summer Triumvirate

Susan

Richardson

Dementia is preferable

Sharon

Rockman

Was It a Dream?

Allen

Shadow

Prayer

Patricia

Sheppard

Family Matters

Fionnula

Simpson

Elizabeth Fortescue provides her numbers for the
Factory Inspector’s Report, 1834

Di

Slaney

Welcome to the Discharge Lounge

Di

Slaney

No Items Match Your Search

Catherine

Spooner

They Tell Me

Shamini

Sriskandarajah

Deep Listening to Daffodils

Jane

Thomas

Dog Talk

Tom

Vandel

Where The Need For Love Takes You

Rob

Wallis

In The Summer

Rob

Wallis

We Appreciate Your Work

Susan

Wolbarst

FORSYTHIAS BLOSSOMING

Ellen

Zhang

 


 

 

LONG-LIST in alphabetical order. (247 poems. Total entry was 2,348)

Slipface

Serena

Alagappan

Let’s Catch Up Soon

Serena

Alagappan

Shadowy drunk/poets dancing

John

Alter

Searching for William Butler Yeats

Mary Anne Eliza

Anderson

Ode to an Irish Minstrel

Mary Anne Eliza

Anderson

19/02/23

Helen

Arthur

Panama shuffle

Helen

Arthur

During the Third Week of the War

Jennifer

Barber

Onset

Jennifer

Barber

My father’s watch

Jennifer

Barber

What to expect…

Eleanor

Barlow

A Few Questions on a River Death

Gill

Barr

Leaving the Mental Ward

Angela

Beese

Love You!

Angela

Beese

Girl at a Funeral

Solano

Bianchi

Behind the shed

Sarah

Bird

Aground

Sharon

Black

Asylum

Andy

Blackford

Cafe, Heartlands

Adrian

Blackledge

Glass Delusion

Rosalin

Blue

Sting of History

Rosalin

Blue

Amelia

Faye

Boland

My Dead Boyfriends

Elizabeth

Boquet

Heirloom

Peter

Borchers

Sunday morning

Peter

Borchers

I explain time travel to my son

Peter

Borchers

Aubade of a Blended Eschatology

Partridge

Boswell

Ensō Carousel

Partridge

Boswell

The Poet’s Way

Partridge

Boswell

The Superpower

Partridge

Boswell

The Return

Partridge

Boswell

The Escape Artist

Partridge

Boswell

Matryoshka

Partridge

Boswell

The Turn

Partridge

Boswell

Fences

Partridge

Boswell

Quadri and Florian

Richard

Brait

FILMS WITH INTERESTING BUT UKNOWN ACTORS

Lawrence

BRIDGES

Longing

Lawrence

BRIDGES

ONE OF THOSE LINOLEUM DAYS

Lawrence

BRIDGES

Boomerang

Cory

Brown

My dad orders four drinks at a restaurant on the
Greek island of Zakynthos, 1987

Jeanette

Burton

Most of all, I remember his hands

Liz

Byrne

Magic Tricks

Finola

Cahill

Midnight at the Second-hand Record Store

Jonathan

Cant

Winter : Water

Charlotte

Carnegie

Bush lessons

Anne M

Carson

Nellie

Jean

Cassidy

Dividing Line

deborah

catesby

Abode

Joseph

Chamberlain

Shadowlands

Robert

Charlton

At the Feet of Michelangelo’s David

Suzanne

Cleary

I Thought You Were It

Hetty

Cliss

Éclairs

brid

connolly

Faith

Martin

Cordrey

GRAFFITI

Alexandra

Corrin-Tachibana

Rooster

Patrick

Cotter

Small-town Rumours

Patrick

Cotter

Beast

Elena

Croitoru

Rosetta Pebble

Tania

Dain

Proofs

Arno

Daniel

The Town

Robert

Daseler

Veronica Lake

Robert

Daseler

Notes on Hospitality

Christina

Daub

SONNET XVII

Gary

Davis

Game. Set. Matched.

Deirdre

Devally

Praise Alaska

Patrick

Dixon

Swearing In Swearing Out

Gabriel

Donleavy

Alone, now

Debra

Doonan

O’Keano’s

Anthony

Doyle

Waiting at the shopping centre coffee shop
for my daughter and her friends

Steven

Duggan

I Never Wanted To come To Your City

Hartley

Dupont

The Harp and Loom are String Sisters

Jane

Edmonds

Selkie

Jennifer

Elmore

Aubade

Birgit

Elston

Blocked Drains

kate

Ennals

Latin Teacher

Frank

Farrelly

Emozioni

Stephanie

Feeney

Fishing Cooperative

Stephanie

Feeney

appetite

Deborah

Finding

Spring’s sighting of a gator sunning itself
from the side of the road—

Amy

Fladeboe

On Reflection

Tom

Flaherty

For The Rose Man

Jean

Flanagan

The Breast Plate

Pauline

Flynn

Infinity curve, with cheesesteak

Stacey

Forbes

Fish Heaven

Sally

Fox

A Lesbian is a Cathedral

Caitlin

Francis

Pentimento

Mag

Gabbert

Bird Perched on Top of Cage

Sheri

Gaitings

Cardinals

Kate

Gale

The Swimmers : 24th November

Joan

García Viltró

SORROW

Geoffrey

Gates

The Curse of the Moon

Norman

Goodwin

Bully

Alison

Gorman

The Urn

Alison

Gorman

The Schooner

Ian

Gouge

BAND OF BROTHERS

Tim

Goulding

CLUSTER BOMB

Tim

Goulding

Venice

Sara

Greaves

Unfinished Hypotheses

Jonathan

Greenhause

The Nameless Gringos Get Drunk in Santiago
& Wind Up Working in the Vineyards

Jonathan

Greenhause

On longshore drift

Dominic

Gregory

Offering to the Blood Bank

Joseph

Grikis

Something like an Outlaw

Dan

Grote

I Would Do Anything for Love

Anthony

Hanbury-Williams

Sundays

Maggie

Harris

A pot of stew in the South of France,
replenished for 500 years

Lyd

Havens

Saying goodbye to my future boyfriend while he’s still
just a man I’ve had a six-week fling with

Rachael

Hill

The Unreeving

Matt

Hohner

Man Jumps on Hood of Car, Smashes
Windshield to Get at Errant Driver

Matt

Hohner

Sowing Begins in Eleven Regions of Ukraine

Matt

Hohner

TO BREAK ALIVE

Pauline

Holdstock

Convenient Acquaintance

Lana

Holman

Sing Whilst You Drown

David

Hughes

While Holding a Bouquet of Salvia

Pamela

Hughes

Mother As Metaverse

Pamela

Hughes

How the Goddess Artemus Gave Up War

Pamela

Hughes

The Scene Without

Winifred

Hughes

Extinction

Luisa A.

Igloria

Inconceivable

Casey

Jarrin

holy days

Dillon

Jaxx

Eyes Closed

Victoria

Kaplan

While listening to NRK Klassik

Fin

Keegan

At the River

James

Kelly

Some Times a Tornado

James

Kelly

A Large and Unexpected Statue of Anubis

Liz

Kendall

Why Otters are like Flashman

Liz

Kendall

To Be A Pilgrim

Liz

Kendall

The Instant of Death’s Triviality

Mohammad

Kheibari

How to Become a Poet

Jay

Kidd

VOICE

Debbie

Knight

Oh No, Not the Beef Stroganoff!

Debbie

Knight

Rumors of Love

Seth

Kronick

Farewell to a Lover

Francesca

La Nave

Photo Near the Beginning

Vanessa

Lampert

Old Days, These Days

Susan

Landgraf

Paragard

Madeline

Lawler

the lights are dimmed

Alfie

Lee

of

Alfie

Lee

Lifeguard

Róisín

Leggett-Bohan

anticipation of anaphylaxis

Róisín

Leggett-Bohan

A Note of Distinction

Lou

Lesovitch

Temple Rubbing

James

Lowell

Your Coaster

James

Lowell

After Making Love With The Feral Coyote

James

Lowell

Hidden

Joanna

Lowry

Toccata for Spoons

Daniel

Lusk

Morning Tea

Michael

Lyle

THE DEAD REGARD THEIR FIRST
THEIR LONGEST LOSS

Niamh

MacCabe

The things you left behind

Jonathan

Marks

Aflutter

Bibi

Marti

Migraine Bulletins

Kitty

Martin

Eternal Return

Seán

Martin

Bird song

Gary

Mason

unrequited ode to an anon

Athena

Mayahi-Barrett

Mass of the innocents

John

McCabe

The Usual

Olivia

McCarthy

One Hundred And Eleven Trees

Alison

McGuire

SUBJECT AND VERB. OBJECT

Sighle

Meehan

Heirlooms

Rekha

Mehra

Cul-de-sac

Steve

Miell

Dwarf Leatherwood

Claire

Miranda Roberts

Mothers of Mariupol

Matt

Mooney

In the horse stall,

Karla K

Morton

With Gratitude

Karla K

Morton

Something to Sing To

Karla K

Morton

1. laissez les bon temps rouler

Karla K

Morton

Rift

Mary

Mulholland

cake

Mary

Mulholland

Midnight on the Roman Line

Ruth

Nancekivell

DAMP DAY

Madelaine

Nerson Mac Namara

Piercing the Psalter

Helen

Newdick

(Three Poems for Fish)

Gloria

Nixon-John

Where the Children Grow

William

Norris

On the London Underground

Catherine

O’Brien

VECTORS IN KABUL

Mary

O’Donnell

The scene on repeat in my mind
for the past ten years

Lauren

O’Donovan

Le Coeur Gastronomique

Jamie

O’Halloran

Ode To Your Lips

Molly

O’Mahony

Saudade

Karen

O’Maxfield

Ageing Poet in a Shop

Mary

O´Gorman

Sweet Boy

Jane

Otto

Why the Child Is Immortal

Christina

Park

This is the Day

Lesley

Quayle

Shark

Marion

Quednau

On Forgiveness

Noah

Rabinovitch

yet spring

Sally

Rauch

Rogue males

Tim

Relf

Park Protocol

Scott

Renzoni

Summer Triumvirate

Susan

Richardson

Between

Sharon

Rockman

Dementia is preferable

Sharon

Rockman

A Woman and the Bardo

Lindsay

Rockwell

CAR BOOT SALE

Joe

Rogers

The Assassination of Piers Gaveston 1312

Neil

Rollinson

Who Killed the Carolina Parakeet?

Dilys

Rose

Confession

Christina

Ruotolo

The Neon Tower

Paul

Saville

Istanbul

James

Scoles

Dream and Dream and Dream

Allen

Shadow

The Bottom of the Roadrunner Cliffs

Allen

Shadow

Was It a Dream?

Allen

Shadow

I am a cow

James

Shapiro

Ugly Crackle

Shelley

Shaver

An Angel, an Argument, Other Arguments

PATRICIA

SHEPPARD

Intake at the Juvenile Detention Center

PATRICIA

SHEPPARD

Prayer

PATRICIA

SHEPPARD

Beethoven’s Spoons

Sorcha

Sills

Family Matters

Fionnula

Simpson

Elizabeth Fortescue provides her numbers
for the Factory Inspector’s Report, 1834

Di

Slaney

Welcome to the Discharge Lounge

Di

Slaney

The Toolbox

Kevin

Smith

Ham Sandwich

Gwendolyn

Soper

No Items Match Your Search

Catherine

Spooner

Wheels Fall Off

Shamini

Sriskandarajah

They Tell Me

Shamini

Sriskandarajah

Gertie Welcomes You to Woolworths & Woolco

Sherri

Stepakoff

Ghost Box

Steve

Stevenson

After Cancer

Christopher

Stewart

Spring Tide

Hannah

Stone

i still google “high functioning” to prove
to myself i wasn’t wrong about you

Sullivan

Summer

AGM

Michael

Swan

Deep Listening to Daffodils

Jane

Thomas

I looked out the window

Liz

Tivoli

what would do for you?

Richard

Toth

Self Portrait as Venice

Heather

Treseler

Walkthrough

Allen

Tullos

Blacktip Shark

Barbara

Tyler

The Satisfying Scent of a Hard Day’s Work

Barbara

Tyler

Dog Talk

Tom

Vandel

Just So You Know

Wendy

Videlock

ON WINGS OF SONG

Maggie

Wadey

My new notebook

Lucy

Wadham

No farewell

Brian

Wall

Rough Or Very Rough

Julia

Wallis

Where The Need For Love Takes You

Rob

Wallis

In The Summer

Rob

Wallis

Licked

Derval

Walsh

In the Munch Museum

John

Williams

Michi

John

Williams

Interfere

Mark Anthony

Williams

Paris in the Tweens

Kathleen

Winter

We Appreciate Your Work

Susan

Wolbarst

Cherry Pits

Ellen

Zhang

Remission

Ellen

Zhang

FORSYTHIAS BLOSSOMING

Ellen

Zhang

 

 

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Fish Anthology 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


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Fish Anthology 2008 – Harlem River Blues

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


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Fish Anthology 2007

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


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Fish Anthology 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


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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


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Fish Anthology 2005 – The Mountains of Mars and Other Stories

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


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Fish Anthology 2004 – Spoonface and Other Stories

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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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


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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


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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


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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.


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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


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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


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Dog Day

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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The Stranger

The writers in this collection can write short stories . . . their quality is the only thing they have in common. – Roddy Doyle


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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.


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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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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.


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Small City Blues numbers 1 to 51 – a novel by Martin Kelleher

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.


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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?


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News & Articles

Story Prize 2023: Long-list

17th March 2024
On behalf of all of us at Fish, congratulations to all of you who made the long list.  The short-list and final results will not be published until 10th April. This is due to unforeseen circumstances and we apologise for any inconvenience that it causes. To preserve the anonymous nature of the judging, we are […]

Launch of the Fish Anthology 2023

12th July 2023
Tuesday 11th July saw the launch of the 2023 Anthology in the Maritime Hotel, Bantry. Nineteen of the fourty authors published in the anthology were there to read from their piece, travelling from Australia, USA and from all corners of Europe.             Read about the Anthology More photos of the […]

Poetry Prize 2023: RESULTS

15th May 2023
  Winners Short-list Long-list     Winners: Here are the 10 winners, as chosen by judge Billy Collins, to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2023. The Anthology will  be launched as part of the West Cork Literary Festival, (The Maritime Hotel, Bantry, West Cork – Tuesday 11th July – 18.00.) All are welcome! Second […]

Flash Fiction Prize 2023: RESULTS

10th April 2023
Winners Short-list Long-list   From all of us at Fish, thank you for entering your flashes. So many gems deserving of a readership have left their imprint on the Fish editors and judge, Kit de Waal. It was an honour to read them all. Congratulations to the writers whose Flash Stories were short or long-listed, […]

Short Memoir Prize: Results 2023

31st March 2023
Winners Short-list Long-list   On behalf of all of us at Fish, we congratulate the 10 winners who made it to the Fish Anthology 2023, and to those writers who made the long and short-lists, well done too.  Thank you to Sean Lusk, for the time and enthusiasm that he put into selecting the winners. (About […]

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