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 night will be posted here shortly, plus links to the kindle and paperback editions on amazon.

 

Nineteen of the authors attended the launch and read from their work. 

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

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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. 

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.

 

 

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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

 

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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

 

 

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, and in particular to the 10 winners whose flash stories will be published in the 2023 Fish Anthology. (Launch will be during the West Cork Literary Festival, Bantry, Ireland – July 2023.)

 

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Winners

Here are the 10 winning Flash Fiction Stories, as chosen by Kit De Waal, to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2023.

Comments on the flash stories are from Kit De Waal, who we sincerely thank for her time and expertise. 

 

 

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FIRST PLACE

First Steps in Probability: by Susan Wigmore

Clever story, with a great sense of place, class and young love.  A tiny bit of a whole world.  Lovely to read, such joy in it.

 

SECOND PLACE

Dynamics:  by Barbara Tarrant

Funny, bright, intimate writing that gets right inside this family and the dynamics between them.  Lovely touches of wit and longing.  A joy to read.

 

THIRD PLACE

 

BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE AND YET: by Emma Goldman-Sherman

 

 

 

SEVEN HONORABLE MENTIONS (In no particular order)

 

HUNGER WALL:  by Mark Bowsher

 

 

NO!:  by Patricia Newbery

 

 

I SEE JESUS IN MY FEVERED DREAM IN QUAY STREET IN GALWAY:  by Linda Nemec Foster

 

 

WITNESS STATEMENT:  by Molly Underwood

 

 

THE FULL PACKAGE:  by Martin Daly

 

 

The Story of Our Beautiful, Smiling Family in Twenty-One Chapters:  by Kurtis Burton

 

 

He Who Dares Wyn Jones by Ian Johnson

 

 

 

“The Fish Prize is very dear to my heart so it was an absolute pleasure and privilege to judge the Flash Fiction category this year.  It’s always amazing to read how much story writers can cram into such a small space and every shortlisted story is a testimony to the skill and inventiveness of the flash fiction writers who entered the prize.  Choosing the winners and honourable mentions was a very difficult task – so much quality vying for attention – and every writer chosen should know that have managed to shine in a very strong field.  Congratulations to everyone and thank you for letting me read you work.”
Kit De Waal

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A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS:

A Londoner by birth, SUSAN WIGMORE grew up on jellied eels and cockney rhyming slang, but after spells in South Wales and Japan, has lived in Oxfordshire more years than she cares to remember. She loves writing short things, canoeing, climbing mountains (slowly) and challenging herself in all three, which can get her into trouble sometimes. She is currently working on a novella-in-flash (at pretty much the same rate as she climbs mountains).

 

BARBARA P TARRANT loves a challenge, recently she turned her attention (and curiosity) to Flash Fiction. Last year she undertook the Fish Playwriting course and has just finished writing her first play.
Barbara returned to education in her forties and received a BA and scholarship from UCD then later an MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity. Barbara has won the Hennessy New Irish Writing award for new Fiction and been shortlisted for The Francis Mac Manus.

 

EMMA GOLDMAN-SHERMAN (she/they), is an outspoken Autistic, Agender, Queer, chronically ill, Feminist and Antizionist Jewish creative with plays produced on 4 continents. You can listen for free at TheParsnipShip.com and PlayingOnAir.org among others. Their poetry has been curated by American Athenaeum, Non-Binary Review, Oberon, Queerlings, Writers Resist and elsewhere. This is their first published Flash Fiction. They work as a coach and support writers and artists around the globe via https://www.bravespace.online/ 

 

MARK BOWSHER is a writer and award-winning filmmaker from Gravesend in Kent, now living in Bristol. His debut novel ‘The Boy Who Stole Time’ was published by Unbound in 2018. He is proudly dyspraxic and feels that it’s partly his short, neurodivergent attention-span that makes him want to write escapist YA fantasy books one minute and sweary satirical whodunnit movie scripts the next. He once climbed a mountain dressed as Peter Pan. 

 

PATRICIA NEWBERY’s work has appeared in Ambit, the Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, The Rupture and elsewhere. She’s a translator and editor and lives in Egypt.

 

LINDA NEMEC FOSTER is a poet and writer, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). Granddaughter of immigrants from southern Poland who settled in America before WWI. Author of 12 collections of poetry including Amber Necklace from Gdansk, Talking Diamonds, The Lake Michigan Mermaid (2019 Michigan Notable Book), and The Blue Divide. Her book of flash fiction, Bone Country, will be published in 2023. The Inaugural Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids (2003-05), Foster is the founder of the Contemporary Writers Series, Aquinas College. www.lindanemecfoster.com

 

MOLLY UNDERWWOOD is an eco-poet and writer living in Cambridge. She was the winner of the 2019 Manchester Poetry Prize, and has been shortlisted for awards including the Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize and the Charles Causley prize; her work appears in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology 2020. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found up a mountain or parked up in her converted campervan with a cup of tea.

 

MARTIN DALY was born in Douglas, Co. Cork to family lines of weavers and stone-cutters. He grew up surrounded by storytellers. He was a financial analyst in the construction industry and a stone mason for several years. In a nod to his ancestry, Martin’s preference now is to weave words together and to cut away what is unnecessary. He has completed his first novel. Martin remains deeply rooted in Douglas, but maintains no fixed abode.

 

KURTIS BURTON is a plague upon Colorado, USA who’s never published nor written about himself in the third person. “Kurtis enjoys hiking and skiing” is what this bio would say if he were a good Coloradan; he’s frail, allergic, and, when exposed to snow or sunlight, irritable. His only cultured and respectable hobbies are reading and writing. He is thankful for his confused and concerned family, who appreciate his writing but wish he’d go outside.

 

IAN JOHNSON escaped from Strangeways prison 30 years ago, dressed as a nun, and afterwards masqueraded as a nurse and CBT therapist in various mental health establishments which were unlucky enough to have him. He found the people he worked with a joy and, inspiration for a lot of his writing. Recently retired, he is now joint Chair of Tyldesley Creative Writers whom, on a weekly basis, he burdens with his jokes.

 

 

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Short-list:

(alphabetical order)

 

There are 37 flash stories in the short-list. There were 1,127 entries in total.

TITLE	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME
Meeting Beethoven in my Imagination	Helen	Bar Lev
Hunger Wall	Mark	Bowsher
Lakota WIdow	Kevin	Burns
The Story of Our Beautiful, Smiling Family in Twenty-One	Kurtis	Burton
Happy Holidays	Leah	Carter
The crone remembers what she’d been told to forget	Lisa	Clapper
The Full Package	Martin	Daly
NIGHT RECEPTION	Tim	Fywell
Because It Is Impossible And Yet	Emma	Goldman-Sherman
Slogan to Nowhere	Mark	Grant
He Who Dares Wyn Jones	Ian	Johnson
Mischief Maker	Simon	Kensdale
Ninety-Nine Invocations	Lauren	Khater
Rattlesnake	Kathleen	Latham
Installation Art	Priscilla	Lawler
Crash	Roland	Leach
Please listen carefully to the safety instructions, even if you are a frequent flyer	Jack	Lethbridge
Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’: a letter from His Holiness The Pope to The Faithful, May 1968.	Finbar	Lillis
Illya Kuryakin Is Dead	Thomas	Malloch
The Other Side of Laughter	Michael	Mcloughlin
Little Boys Have Need Of Wings	Jennifer	McMahon
A Candy Bar Existential For Life	William	Natale
I See Jesus in my Fevered Dream in Quay Street in Galway	Linda	Nemec Foster
No	Patricia	Newbury
Smokey Eyes	Vlad	Nikolic
The Worst, Times Two, Wouldn’t Have Happened	Hannah	Retallick
We Three	Shelley	Roche-Jacques
The Sheriff of Nottingham is more sexually attractive and more reasonable than people think	Shelley	Roche-Jacques
Grating	Nicholas	Ruddock
Delivery Failure	David	Sherman
An Hour Earlier	Karen	Storey
Dynamics	Barbara	Tarrant
Witness Statement	Molly	Underwood
Last Kiss, Age 10	Nate	Van Sweden
The Ask	Lauren	Watel
First Steps in Probability	Susan	Wigmore
Mother Love	Joanna	Will

 

 

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Long-list 

(alphabetical order)

There are 105 flash stories in the long-list. There were 1,127 entries in total.

 

TITLE	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME
Duck, dip, dive	Juliana	Adelman
The Big Red Truck	Susanna Jade	Angolani
Inheritance	Alison	Archer
An Irreverent End	Canaan	Asbury
Meeting Beethoven in my Imagination	Helen	Bar Lev
Like a Penguin’s Flipper	Helen	Bar Lev
Am I an unofficial granddaughter of Elvis Presley?	Daria	Beger
Strangers	Jack	Bennett
Happy	Hayley	Blair
The Hunger Wall	Mark	Bowsher
Hunger Wall	Mark	Bowsher
Lakota Widow	Kevin	Burns
The Story of Our Beautiful, Smiling Family in Twenty-One	Kurtis	Burton
Happy Holidays	Leah	Carter
The crone remembers what she’d been told to forget	Lisa	Clapper
Things I Can’t Forget from Six Days That Summer	Chris	Cottom
After the Flood	Dominic	Creed
Lucky, Blessed	Nikki	Crutchley
The Full Package	Martin	Daly
Torture Dreams	Paul	Doolan
This message is for. Jonathan.	Ciaran	Fitzpatrick
I See Jesus in My Fevered Dream on Quay Street in Galway	Linda Nemec	Foster
NIGHT RECEPTION	Tim	Fywell
Aberrant	Maureen	Gallagher
Persephone in Later Life	Frances	Gapper
A Brief Natural History of Fairies	Amy	Goldmacher
Because It Is Impossible And Yet	Emma	Goldman-Sherman
Gone, Move On	Sam	Gordon Webb
Slogan to Nowhere	Mark	Grant
Teacher	Christine	Guillen
Self love	Caitlin	Gunthorp
Transience	Liam	Heffernan
The Story of Yellow	Lizzie	Holden
Shapes of Pure Desire	Patrick	Hopkins
Look Outside	Radhika	Iyer
The atomic structure of Dolly’s seclusion room	BM	Johnson
He Who Dares Wyn Jones	Ian	Johnson
The Petrified Forest	Fin	Keegan
Mischief Maker	Simon	Kensdale
The Wake of the Big Top	Liz	Kerr
Ninety-Nine Invocations	Lauren	Khater
Haircut	Mary Catherine	Lake
Bog iron	Shane	Larkin
Rattlesnake	Kathleen	Latham
Installation Art	Priscilla	Lawler
Crash	Roland	Leach
Lost	alfie	lee
Flash Fiction	alfie	lee
Please listen carefully to the safety instructions, even if you are a frequent flyer	Jack	Lethbridge
How to Enrage Your Husband by Suggesting he Paint from a Photo	David	Lewis
Gone	Lynn	Lidstone
Encyclical ‘Humanae Vitae’: a letter from His Holiness The Pope to The Faithful, May 1968.	Finbar	Lillis
Mother Tongue	Kik	Lodge
Pa’s a wonky shopping trolley	Kik	Lodge
Berries of Belladonna	Lourdes	Mackey
Illya Kuryakin Is Dead	Thomas	Malloch
The King’s New Clothes	Caroline	McCartney
A Theatrical Entrance	Mary	McClarey
The Probability App that Measures Your Level of Happiness	Michael	Mcloughlin
The Other Side of Laughter	Michael	Mcloughlin
Little Boys Have Need Of Wings	Jennifer	McMahon
The Ticket Taker	Ken	Millman
Rough Awakening	Lois	Morrison
Market Street	Laura	Muetzelfeldt
The magic word for happy	Pauline	Murphy
A Candy Bar Existential For Life	William	Natale
I See Jesus in my Fevered Dream in Quay Street in Galway	Linda	Nemec Foster
No	Patricia	Newbery
Smokey Eyes	Vlad	Nikolic
Aurora Borealis	June	O’Sullivan
The Habitual Boredom of a Forty-Year-old Woman	Aileen	OBrien
Reflection	Gabriela	Paloa
Miniatures	Alan Michael	Parker
strangers breathe air into you	Jesus	Pena
Temporal Origami	Steph	Percival
A Dubious Hybrid	Tom	Rand
They Killed my Love	Nozhan	Resalati
Six Videos	Hannah	Retallick
The Worst, Times Two, Wouldn’t Have Happened	Hannah	Retallick
Double Act	Douglas	Reynolds
Wind Turbine	Kate	Rigby
Furiously Beneath	Shelley	Roche-Jacques
We Three	Shelley	Roche-Jacques
The Sheriff of Nottingham is more sexually attractive and more reasonable than people think	Shelley	Roche-Jacques
Do Good and Share With Others, For With Such Sacrifices, God Is Pleased	Belinda	Rowe
Grating	Nicholas	Ruddock
Death Dances on the Head of a Pin	Robin	Schwarz
Everything You’re Looking For	David	Sherman
Delivery Failure	David	Sherman
Waste Games	Jamie	Stacey
Inheritance	Bernard	Steeds
still air	Caroline	Stevens-Taylor
The Locust Men	Mark	Stewart
An Hour Earlier	Karen	Storey
Penance	Nora	Studholme
Dynamics	Barbara	Tarrant
Your Connection is Too Weak Please Try Again Later	Geraldine	Terry
Countdown to Departure	Jennie	Tucker
Witness Statement	Molly	Underwood
Last Kiss, Age 10	Nate	Van Sweden
The Ask	Lauren	Watel
First Steps in Probability	Susan	Wigmore
Mother Love	Joanna	Will
Minnow	Jo	Withers

 

 

 

 

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 Sean’s novel.)

 

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The 10 Winners:

Selected by Sean Lusk.

 

FIRST

My Mother’s Daughter:
by Anneke Bender  (USA)

 

SECOND

The Dead on Street View:
by Nuala Roche  (Ireland)

 

THIRD

Escape Van:
by Sabine Casparie (UK)

 

 

HONORARY MENTIONS

A Brown Night: by Thelma McGough  (UK)

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Love: by Kathryn Phelan  (Ireland)

 

 

Of Many Things I have no clear remembrance: by Dani Salvadori  (UK)

 

 

Bravo India Lima: by Olivia Rana  (N Ireland)

 

 

For Richer, Poorer and Doritos: by Cheryl Miller-Fitzgerald (USA)

 

 

Except for One Thing: by Thomas Darlington Crancer (USA)

 

 

 

Notes from judge, Sean Lusk:

These memoirs took me on quite the journey – from the Grand Canyon to Tokyo, from Dublin to Colorado, from London to Poland. But a memoir is a journey in time, and many of these memoirs pinpointed the precise feeling of loss and longing and desire that memories evoke in us. Many were adventurous with form, being in the true sense ‘hybrid’ syntheses of essay, article, and story.

The winning memoirs (and it was hard to choose first, second, third and beyond) seemed to me to perfectly encapsulate the memoir, rising above form to call up a memory that felt intensely true and personal – at once particular and yet also universal. Except for One Thingis a tender, heartfelt account of coming to terms with grief. For Richer, Poorer and Doritos is beautifully observed, its sadness tinged with humour and, ultimately, acceptance. Bravo India Lima is a powerful and superbly observed memoir of the troubles in Northern Ireland, taking us from the eighties through the Good Friday Agreement and almost to the present day. Of Many Things I Have No Clear Remembranceis a collision of memories of words, artefacts and poems, a hybrid piece that captures the often fractured and uncertain nature of remembrance. Speaking of Loveis an enormously assured piece of writing, a story of a relationship told with deft sensuality and the troubling uncertainty of loss. Death by Overworkis a fascinating piece, set in Tokyo, the routine horror of train suicides punctuated by an English teacher’s regular conversations with his student, and a developing obsession with a woman merely glimpsed. It makes an unfamiliar culture seem both more alien and yet also intensely known. A Brown Nightis a harrowing story of a father’s attempt to take his own life, and the bravery of a nine-year-old girl who saves him and, in doing so, also saves herself. I found it very moving.

 Third placed story Escape Vanis another story that features psychological trauma and thoughts of suicide. Its honesty, the clarity of the writing and its redemptive quality are profoundly felt. It’s also written with quiet subtlety, with ever greater detail as the narrator responds once more to what life has to give. I thought it wonderful.

Second placed story, The Dead on Street Viewsurprised me. At first I feared it was going to be a lecture, with its dictionary definitions of the word ‘gatch’ (geáitse) and quotations, but it had me ensnared as the narrator observed the particular bend in their son’s neck, and then moved into the uses (and abuses) of google street view, and the notion that we are always looking back at the dead, as street view looks back in time. I thought it ingenious, and the ingenuity increased as the memoir made its case, and as the writing grew more lyrical and with such beautifully placed lines as ‘Each way lay an impaling’ and the aunt who says: ‘I’d like to know what I could’ve been.’ It’s well worth reading two or three times, this memoir, because it captures that longing for loss – lost time, lost moments, lost lives that is the epitome of memoir, while also playing skilfully with form.

 And finally, our first-placed story My Mother’s Daughter. This, it seems to me, does everything a memoir should – the slightly uncertain beginning, as the walk in the Grand Canyon is repeated three times through different photographs, reflecting the way memories come to us, initially uncertain before we impose our own sense and our own story upon them. The specificity of detail is so beautiful – the van, the lab, the trinkets. The relationship of the daughter with the mother, the ex-nun with a mischievous, even anarchic streak – is rendered perfectly. And their first moment of parting, the opening movement in the long parting to come, is simply exquisite. I was deeply touched by this memoir, as I was by so many I read. Judging these has truly been an honour. 

 

 

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SHORT-LIST (43, in alphabetical order. There were 879 entries)

Boxes, Crates and Plastic-shrouded Pallets	Mara	Adamitz Scrupe
Ghosts	Amal	Alhomsi
From Enchanted Garden to Beguiling Seas	Clare	Allcard
My Mother’s Daughter	Anneke	Bender
Eggshells	Eleanor	Blake
ORPHEUS AFTER	Partridge	Boswell
Nozzy	Adam	Brown
Snake Handling	Grant	Buday
Escape Van	Sabine	Casparie
Still	Sarah Easter	Collins
Conversations in Hull	Sarah Easter	Collins
The Chevrotain	Lisa	Cortez
Exceot for one Thing	Thomas	Crancer
St Columba’s Curse	Sarah	Davies
Red and White	Wisteria	Deng
Cocoon	Yvonne	Fein
For Richer, Poorer and Doritos	Cheryl	Fitzgerald
My mum was a gardener	Sarah	Forbes
A Tale from the Silk Road	Stephen	Hayden
Beasts and Burdens	Emma	Hillier
A True Story About Mrs Smith	Rory	KILALEA
Rincon el Diablo	John	Ledford
Consider the Octopus	Francesca	Leonie
Deep Songs	Francesca	Leonie
Essay	Asya	Likhman
The first funeral	Harriet	Mason
Walking on Walls	Thelma	McGough
Tukwila Gold and Pawn	Nikita	Minkin
The year the clocks stopped	Clar	Ni Chonghaile
How I Came to Spend Christmas in a Psychiatric Facility	Lauren	O’Donovan
Speaking of Love	Kathryn	Phelan
Standing in the Rain	Stephen	Policoff
Clip	Jay	Prosser
Bravo, India, Lima.	Olivia	Rana
Teach/Each/Ache: Notes from the Fulton County Jail	Stuart	Robbins
The Dead on Street View	Nuala	Roche
Slammakin	Ailsa	Ross
Of many things I have no clear remembrance	Dani	Salvadori
Carrying the Griefcase or Death by Overwork	James	Scoles
A Walk Home	Michelle	Scorziello
The Distance Between Things	Carrie	Seymour
The Pink Hibiscus	Charlene	Smith
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Breast Cancer: Act I—Chemotherapy—Begins	Katie	Snyder

 

 

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LONG-LIST (104. In Alphabetical Order. There were 879 entries)

Boxes, Crates and Plastic-shrouded Pallets	Mara	Adamitz Scrupe
Ghosts	Amal	Alhomsi
From Enchanted Garden to Beguiling Seas	Clare	Allcard
The Strange Legacy of a Diminutive Ghost	Anneke	Bender
My Mother’s Daughter	Anneke	Bender
Eggshells	Eleanor	Blake
Patriots’ Day	Partridge	Boswell
ORPHEUS AFTER	Partridge	Boswell
A Fiery Solace	Kevin	Brophy
Nozzy	Adam	Brown
Snake Handling	Grant	Buday
Dry Stone	James Roderick	Burns
Karmageddon	Lynn	Bushell
The Yellow Door	Mairéad	Carew
Escape Van	Sabine	Casparie
The Initiation	Jaineba	Chang
Shipwrecks	Stephanie	Colburn
Still	Sarah Easter	Collins
Conversations in Hull	Sarah Easter	Collins
My sister	jane	cornes maclean
The Chevrotain	Lisa	Cortez
Exceot for one Thing	Thomas	Crancer
Microwave Dinners & MTV	sally	cranswick
The Performance of Grief	Claudia	Cruttwell
Confession	Sarah	Davies
St Columba’s Curse	Sarah	Davies
Leaving Home	Teresa	DeCrescenzo
Red and White	Wisteria	Deng
Edith L. Slocum	Tim	Dennis
Names Will Never Again Hurt Me	Deirdre	Devally
The Gravy Train	Garret	Dwyer Joyce
Cocoon	Yvonne	Fein
For Richer, Poorer and Doritos	Cheryl	Fitzgerald
Do-Overs	Adrian	Fleur
My mum was a gardener	Sarah	Forbes
Last Dogs	Michael	Forester
The Lives We Leave Behind	Sally	Fox
This is Us	Sally	Fox
Zulu	TOM	FOX
Dear Mum	Joyce	Fox
The Other Half of Everything	Adrian	Fox
Casting On	Jane	Fraser
A Life in Three Plaits.	Ruth	Geldard
A Tale from the Silk Road	Stephen	Hayden
Beasts and Burdens	Emma	Hillier
Thirsty	Marcella	Hourihane
The Rocky Road	Rosemary	Johnston
Is Today Tuesday	Ann	Jolly
The Ash	Rosemary	Jones
A True Story About Mrs Smith	Rory	KILALEA
THE YEAR OF DEAD DAYS	Alice	Langley
Rincon el Diablo	John	Ledford
Consider the Octopus	Francesca	Leonie
Deep Songs	Francesca	Leonie
Essay	Asya	Likhman
Diary of an Iranian Schoolgirl	Mahta	Mansouri
The first funeral	Harriet	Mason
Flirting with the Pentecostals	Helen	McClements
Bare Naked Magic	Eileen	McFalls
Walking on Walls	Thelma	McGough
Tukwila Gold and Pawn	Nikita	Minkin
The Prodigal Son	Victoria	Mizen
Someone Young	Hannah	Morphet
The End	Carla	Myers
The year the clocks stopped	Clar	Ni Chonghaile
Flames	Marilyn	Nunney
How I Came to Spend Christmas in a Psychiatric Facility	Lauren	O’Donovan
He Waits for Me	fiona	O’Sullivan
Small and Lucky: One Mind’s Memoir	Kevin	ONeill
Speaking of Love	Kathryn	Phelan
Standing in the Rain	Stephen	Policoff
Problems in the Buying of Shampoo	Peter	Pool
Clip	Jay	Prosser
Mother of happiness	Marianne	Puxley
I Choose the Music	Marion	Quednau
Bravo, India, Lima	Olivia	Rana
Bravo, India, Lima.	Olivia	Rana
Crocodile Shoes	Jeff	Richards
Running in Thistles	Alina	Rios
Teach/Each/Ache: Notes from the Fulton County Jail	Stuart	Robbins
The Dead on Street View	Nuala	Roche
Slammakin	Ailsa	Ross
Goree Island	Zurina	Saban
Of many things I have no clear remembrance	Dani	Salvadori
A Daughter to Watch Over Her	Cathy	Schen
Blueberries	Anne	Schuchman
The Mommy Friends	Anne	Schuchman
Carrying the Griefcase or Death by Overwork	James	Scoles
A Walk Home	Michelle	Scorziello
The Distance Between Things	Carrie	Seymour
The Greyhound	Alan	Sincic
Brick by Brick	Vicki	Siska
Demolitions	Ruskin	Smith
The Pink Hibiscus	Charlene	Smith
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Breast Cancer: Act I—Chemotherapy—Begins	Katie	Snyder
Into the shadows; a memoir	Hayley	Solomon
A World Away	Charity	Starrett
Fathers’ Day	Claire	Steele
THE GREAT ONE	Michal Gregory	Stephens
Noli Me Tangere	Pamela	Swanborough
The Blue Curtain	Jackie	Taylor
It Never Rains in Wycombe	Jennifer	Twomey
Good Girl	Kayla Pica	Williams
Himalayan Sunset	Scott	Winkler

 

 

Comments from Judge, Sarah Hall:

Reading short stories is one of the most nerve-wracking experiences. You never know
what you are going to get as a reader, and as a critic. This is not just because they
showcase disquiet, tension, subversion and surprise, but because the form itself is so
difficult, so exacting, even punishing to attempt, and it remains, very often, an un-
mastered discipline.

But I was delighted to find so many skilled pieces in the entries this year, stories that
were gem-like, compressed and glinting, little worlds in entirety that refracted life and
ideas, and created a hinterland around their borders. Pieces that were written by
authors who really understood short story metrics – economy, traction, mood,
schematics, potency, negative space, and irresolution.

I was also heartened to experience a variety of themes and styles, because the form,
for all its limits, is oddly flexible, open to innovation, experimentation and originality,
a staging ground for a host of topics and landscapes and human goings-on. It is hard
to summarize these entries, other than to say, as always, existentialist DNA was deep
there, from which a myriad of ideas, tales and explorations branched out.

What a joy! What a joy to experience in these stories the many versions of us, told in
so many different ways, small episodes pushing up against big themes, propositions
and provocations that expand any restrictions we might make for ourselves, socially,
politically, or textually. What a joy to be transported to so many different places
around the globe, and into speculative futures, and back into the disputable past.
Yes, the reading was truly nerve-wracking, but for all the right reasons.

 

A little about the winners:

Letty Butler is a writer, actress, comedienne, creative coach and chronically indecisive. She’s based in a tiny flat in Sheffield, writes across multiple genres and has just finished her debut novel, Escape Artists. Letty’s always got multiple projects on the bubble due to a low boredom threshold. She’s currently working on her debut collection of short fiction and is developing a 12-part comedy series for screen, alongside award-winning director, Juliet May (Motherland, Miranda). 

Nicholas Petty is a British writer living in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His short fiction has previously been listed for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize, and has appeared in The Moth, The London Magazine, Short Fiction Journal, and elsewhere. When he’s not at his desk, he can be found on a sunny terrace with a plate of bitterballen and a tiny Dutch beer.

Dylan Garity is a writer and editor originally from Oregon, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. As a spoken word poet, he has toured around the United States, performing at a wide variety of venues and winning the college national poetry slam with Macalester College. He cofounded and served as vice president of Button Poetry for many years, and now works as a freelance fiction editor. “Autophile” is his first published short story.

Roger Vickery rescued this story from a shelter. From the jump, it whined, barked, scratched, and shat out demands to be re-located to a sunny home. Drawing on his multi-vocational (ADHD?) background Roger employed marketing wiles, legal arguments, military tactics, teaching aids and sailing tacks to up-sell the ingrate. Failure. Then he remembered The Fish. They’re a soft touch… accepted his poetry pup in 2015… maybe they’re open to a new stray?   

Allegra Mullan is twenty-two years old and lives in North London. She has had work published in the Keats Shelley review, the Penguin First Story anthology, the 2016 Foyles Young Poets anthology, and Rotters Magazine. When she is not on her phone, Allegra enjoys watching film trailers and walking. She is currently studying Creative Writing at Goldsmiths and working as a chef.

Emma Neale lives and works in Dunedin, New Zealand, as a freelance editor and occasional creative writing tutor. The published author of novels, poetry and short fiction, she is also the mother of two sons. Her husband works as a theoretical physicist; her sons like to say this family background of  ‘physics and poetry’ has clearly led directly to their own divergent passions: jazz percussion and basketball. 

Josephine Rowe is the author of three story collections and a novel, A Loving, Faithful Animal, published in the UK by Tuskar Rock Press. She was a 2021-2022 fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Centre for Scholars and Writers, and a 2022 Writer in Residence at Literaturhaus Zürich. She has recently returned to Australia and is living in coastal Victoria, working on a new novel and sleep. Her latest collection of stories is Here Until August. 

Josh Wagner spent his early years in California before his folks dragged him off to Montana, where he learned to love a bit of solitude. He has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently living in West Cork working on a baffling PhD concerning forests, grief, embodiment and spectrality. He dabbles in music, filmmaking and theatre, but the art of fiction will always be his first and most abiding love.

Hanako Senzoku has spent half her life in Melbourne, Australia and half as a returnee in Tokyo, Japan – her sense of what constitutes a barbeque is a present source of consternation, and writing an ever-guiding star. She is perpetually filled with wonder and confusion, and an appetite for delicious things. 

 

 

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Short-list:

(alphabetical order) There are 45 stories on the short-list. (There were  1,392 entries in total).

Title	First Name	Last Name
Hanna. With Two Ns.	Peter-Adrian	Altini
Borrowed Bones	Rita	Ariyoshi
Binoculars	Alex	Baines
How to rescue a cat	Liz	Barnard
The Martyr’s Brother	Paul	Bassett Davies
The Jewelled Sea	Paul	Bassett Davies
Mobile	Maryanne	Berry
The Approximate Distance in Light Years Between Us	Mike	Carson
Pomegranate	RAND RICHARDS	COOPER
Mending Wall	Mark	Edwards
Karma	Mark	Edwards
500 Internal Server Error	Nikki	England
The End of Pi	Andrew	Gardiner
Autophile	Dylan	Garity
What Lies Within	M	Gethins
Buddies	Emily	Grabham
Christmas Magic?	Peter	Greenwood
Deliverance	Lauren	Guastella
To Brighten a Dull Wing	Ruth	Guthrie
Hello Hell	Maurice	Haeems
The Making of Him	Alice	Jolly
Foxholes	Seán	Kenny
Everything Else Is Afterwards	Seán	Kenny
Hi-Ho The Derry-O	Suzanne	McCourt
Hitch	Emma	Neale
Baby Heart	Giles	Newington
The Outsiders	Treasa	O’Brien
Standard Model	Fergal	O’Byrne
Coccinella magnifica	A F	Packer
ALL IT TAKES	Pat	Pickavance
Release	Stephanie	Pollock
Banana Taffy	Chad	Poovey
Helter Skelter	Julie	Rea
Readmission	Josephine	Rowe
Last Act	Natalie	Southworth
They Come to Me Now and Then in The Dying	David	Strickland
Burgundy Ridges	Matt	Surface
Yoyo	Carsten	ten Brink
Endangered	Roger	Vickery
Roofers	Roger	Vickery
Stay and Hold	Joshua	Wagner
The Parts He Missed	Joshua	Wagner
Last Year’s Fires	Andrea	Watts
Dog	James	Wilson
DELOREAN	Judith	Wilson

 

 

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Long-list:

(alphabetical order)

There are 135 stories in the long-list. (There were 1,392 entries in total.)

 

Title	First Name	Last Name
Fur	Allegra	A Mullan
Hanna. With Two Ns.	Peter-Adrian	Altini
Before	Nancy	Antle
Borrowed Bones	Rita	Ariyoshi
Confinement	Karen	Ashe
Binoculars	Alex	Baines
Tamara Ivanovna Talks to Herself	Jana	Bakunina
THE GLASS EATER	Erika	Banerji
How to rescue a cat	liz	barnard
The Martyr’s Brother	Paul	Bassett Davies
The Jewelled Sea	Paul	Bassett Davies
Eli, 2021	Mona	Becker
The Mourners	Donald	Berk
Mobile	Maryanne	Berry
MIORBHAIL	Alfreda	Black
Lovely Stars	Hayley	Blair
Poetry for the Epilogue	Kevin	Broccoli
Vietnam	Letty	Butler
Chains Like the Sea	Michael	Carragher
The Approximate Distance in Light Years Between Us	Mike	Carson
Catch a ______ by his Toe	Stuart	Chapman
About the Cat	Ann	Collins
All Life’s Prizes	Jude	Cook
Hot Hex Summer	Laura	Cooper
Pomegranate	RAND RICHARDS	COOPER
The Names of those Lost	Craig	Cormick
Cailleach	Maureen	Cullen
Particles	Nina	Cullinane
Homeless Camping Jump	Annie	Dawid
Touch Pool	Brooke	Dunnell
Mending Wall	Mark	Edwards
Karma	Mark	Edwards
500 Internal Server Error	Nikki	England
Pivot	Jane	Finlayson
Souvenir	Thomasin	Finn
A Shrine for Justin	Mary	Fox
A Category of Kindness	Soma Mei Sheng	Frazier
How Many Feminists Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?	Helena	Frith Powell
The End of Pi	Andrew	Gardiner
Autophile	Dylan	Garity
Story of a Book	Paulo	Garnsey
My Sweary Neighbour	CJ	Garrow
Badly Drawn Girl.	Ruth	Geldard
What Lies Within	M	Gethins
Buddies	Emily	Grabham
Christmas Magic?	Peter	Greenwood
Deliverance	Lauren	Guastella
To Brighten a Dull Wing	Ruth	Guthrie
Hello Hell	Maurice	Haeems
The Deer	Andrea	Harper
untitled	Sarah	Harte
King of the Roads	Aaron	Hennessy
Paulina	Pamela	Hensley
Shelley, naked	Brian	Hill
Banana Bread	Rachael	Hill
A Man Who Has Com Through	Sean	Hooks
The Old Snow Country	Mandy	Huggins
The Chef’s Suggestions	Roger	Jefferies
Someday Soon	Gregory	Jeffers
The Making of Him	Alice	Jolly
The Troop Leader	Brynne	Jones
The Bird Warden	Jupiter	Jones
Diamonds and Toads	Sara	Keating
Pupils	Tyler	Keevil
Foxholes	Seán	Kenny
Everything Else Is Afterwards	Seán	Kenny
Silence	Scott	Lambridis
Contrary Motion	Anna	Lawrence
Life in the Caged Jungle	BV	Lawson
Red Sun	Mary	Lewis
KILLING TIME IN ABERYSTWYTH	Emily	Macdonald
Absent Without Leave	Fiona J	Mackintosh
The English Opening	Camilla	Macpherson
Stella	Emma	Mather
The Democracy of Weather	Tracy	Maylath
The Weaver of Tales	Jillean	McClory
Halley’s Comet	Victor	McConnell
Hi-Ho The Derry-O	Suzanne	McCourt
The Unexpected Challenge	Patrick	McCusker
Epilimnion	Alison	McGuire
Breakfast Like a Pauper	Naci	Mehmet
Breakfast	Naci	Mehmet
The Exorcism	Gillian	Metheringham
Knot Wood	Michael	Miller
The Turn	Philip	Miller
Memento Mori	Pauline	Milner
5, 4, 3, 2, 1	Konrad	Muller
Rats, Stars etc.	David	Murray
Hitch	Emma	Neale
Baby Heart	Giles	Newington
The Outsiders	Treasa	O’Brien
Standard Model	Fergal	O’Byrne
Borneo	Leanne	Ogasawara
“Maroons”	Alexander	Ortega
Coccinella magnifica	A F	Packer
Where the Women Are	Susan	Peet
The Longhouse	Nicholas	Petty
Odds	Nicholas	Petty
ALL IT TAKES	Pat	Pickavance
Release	Stephanie	Pollock
Banana Taffy	Chad	Poovey
Skokie	Janet	Price
The Other Side	Norah	Prida Bay
Helter Skelter	Julie	Rea
She Went There for the Weekend	Hannah	Retallick
The Tender Hand of Faith	John	Rex
Dirty Chicken & Rice	Simon	Roberts
Pipeline	Alex	Rourke
Readmission	Josephine	Rowe
A Parcel of Rogues	Kerry	Ryan
The Thing Adored	Hanako	Senzoku
White Gloss and Sheen	Hanako	Senzoku
The Watch Case	Hanako	Senzoku
Waiting For The Big One	Catherine	Shorr
Buried	emma	Shtanichev
A Weighty Issue	susan	smith
Last Act	Natalie	Southworth
KILL ALL SHAREHOLDERS	Jon	Stapley
They Come to Me Now and Then in The Dying	David	Strickland
Burgundy Ridges	Matt	Surface
Complete strangers	John	Taylor
Yoyo	Carsten	ten Brink
Licked	Rosalind	Thomas
Endangered	Roger	Vickery
Roofers	Roger	Vickery
Stay and Hold	Joshua	Wagner
The Parts He Missed	Joshua	Wagner
Last Year’s Fires	Andrea	Watts
The Flatlands	Tracey	Weddle
The Invisible One	Pamela	Wills
Dog	James	Wilson
DELOREAN	Judith	Wilson
Concerto in F Flat Minor for Oboe and Flute	scott	winkler
The Worst Story	Mat	Woolfenden
The Lonely Daughter of Fabio Penitente	Anna	Zaranko

 

 

MORE ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY

The Maritime Hotel, (Bantry, West Cork, Ireland) hosted The Anthology launch on 11th July, during the West Cork Literary Festival. 15 of the 39 writers published in the Anthology made it to the launch to read an extract from their short story or memoir, or their entire flash story or poem.

 

 

A pre-launch get together of the writers and some of the Fish team the night before in Ma Murphy’s Bar, Bantry, was enjoyed by all.  It was a great opportunity to get to know the writers who attended, many of whom had travelled from abroad to be there. What a great bunch! Seán, from Ma Murphy’s Bar added to the occasion with his insights into world affairs. 

 

 

 

The launch was introduced by Clem Cairns (Fish Director) and Tina Pisco (Fish Editor). The audience was in for a treat. Each of the pieces read at the launch came alive. There is something magical about hearing authors read their own work, an extra quality, a spark, a flavour that you might miss when reading alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Helena Frith Powell reading from her short story, ‘The Japanese Gardener’ (2nd Prize)	Karen Stevens, reading from her short story ‘Among the Crows’ (3rd prize).
Geoff Lillis, reading from his short story, ‘Repossession’.	DB MacInnes reading from his short story, ‘The Gypsy Gambler’.
Partridge Boswell reading his flash story, ‘The Stone Cottage’ (1st prize).	Linda Nemec Foster reading her flash story ‘On the Other Side of the World’ (2nd prize).
Seamus Scanlon reading his flash story ‘Beauty Curse’.	Wally Suphap reading from his short memoir, ‘Thirteen Ways of Interrogating an Incident’ (1st prize).
David Ralph reading from his short memoir, ‘Two Bastards’ (3nd prize).	Diane Vonglis Parnell reading from her short memoir, ‘Blame the Milkman’.
Jaclyn Maria Fowler reading from her short memoir, ‘In the Summer Before Third Grade’.	Susan Shepherd reading her poem, ‘The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove’ (1st prize).
Katie Griffith reading her poem, ‘Retreat’ (3rd prize).	Doreena Jennings reading her poem, ‘Blue Jeans’.
Cynthia Snow reading her poem, ‘For Leonard’.

Maritime Hotel, Bantry, West Cork, Ireland
11th July at 6pm

All welcome!

This event is part of the week long West Cork Literary Festival which runs from Friday 8th until Saturday 16th July. There is a packed schedule of talks, readings, interviews and workshops.

Many of the authors published in the 2022 Anthology will be at the launch to read from their work. The Anthology is a wonderous mixture of texture, view point and style and the launch will be a great opportunity to sample some of the exciting new voices showcased here.

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

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Winners

Here are the 10 winners, as chosen by judge Billy Collins, to be published in the Fish Anthology 2022

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

The 10 winning poems will be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2022. 
1st prize: €1,000
2nd: a week in residence at Anam Cara Writer’s and Artist’s Retreat. 
3rd: €200

 

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

Congratulations to the ten winning poets, and also to those whose poems made the short-list of 65, and the long-list of 247. Total entry was 2,170. 

 

More about the 10 winning poets (link). 

The Ten Winners:

 

FIRST                                                                                                 

The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove 
by Susan Shepherd (SCOTLAND)

‘Short, but not as simple as it might appear, “The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove” is a poem in five balanced couplets that captures a moment where two experiences, occurring simultaneously, are folded together.  The situation is spelled out in the first line: “I’m face to face with a wildebeest and my daughter is on the phone.”  The title lets us know it’s a stuffed wildebeest in a gallery, but the daughter’s “hatred of men starting with her father” is quite real.  The poem toggles back and forth between the daughter’s loud torrent and the mother’s fixation with the beast, who began in Kenya and now appears shocked to find himself in Glasgow.  The phone call ends and so does the mother’s moment with the animal.  Nothing to do but leave the gallery to the larger scene of stressed families and gaudy rink lights.  And, then, to write this modest poem, which, like the wildebeest, is a means of steadying the self.’ – Billy Collins

 

SECOND

Love’s Latitudes
by Judy Crowe (California, USA)

‘Love’s Latitudes is a delightful, lively send-up of instructions from what turns out to be a very unreliable teacher of oil painting.  The four uneven stanzas, with long chatty lines, contain an imbalanced mix of the practical (“Lay out your fine brushes”) and the absurd (“Always paint the sides of the canvas” and getting the right color for “thimbleberries”). The level of playfulness rises with the discovery that the pitiable student will be painting over another painting and the final work will somehow be suggestive of love.  The reader cannot help enjoy being manipulated by the escalation of silliness climaxing in a most mysterious ending where the flowers called coral bells (titanium white) will actually begin to ring.  Only in poetry’. – Billy Collins

 

 

THIRD

Retreat
by Katie Griffiths (Surrey, England)

‘Retreat begins as a parody of one of those yoga/mindfulness getaways, which ordinarily would be an easy target were it not for the speaker’s interestingly jangled language and her remembrance of another retreat involving ascetic deprivations and self-flagellation. Or was that in a past life? she wonders.  In neatly enjambed tercets, the poem becomes stranger as it finds its way.  A favorite sentence is “Thank heavens this was August/ and not the springmelt or we’d have been a limblash/ down to Orgiva.” We’re somewhere in Spain, but we’re really in the hands of an eccentric guide for whom the stars “jigged and hornswaggled.”  But after her distorted journey, she is returned by poem’s end to almost normal.  Eliminating as her identity both Nefertiti and her military uncle, she becomes herself again: a “mother frazzled to the quick.”  A vivid imagination is at play here, and a fine frenzy is the result’. – Billy Collins

HONORARY MENTIONS (in no particular order):

 

Blue Jeans

by Doreena Jennings (Carlow, Ireland)

 

 

Gourds  

by Caroline Freeman (Mississippi, USA)

 

 

Invisible Sisterhood

by Julia Forster (Machynlleth, Wales)

 

 

Stickball Cemetery

by Joshua Sauvageau (Chicago, USA)

 

 

Tell me I’m Pretty

by Nicole Adabunu (Iowa, USA)

 

 

Perfect Dad

by Jonathan Greenhause (New Jersey, USA)

 

 

For Leonard

by Cynthia Snow (Massachusetts, USA)

 

 

 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS

Susan Shepherd is a journalist from the Scottish border town of Coldstream, where she likes to neglect housework and watch otters in the Tweed. Her first pamphlet, Wood End (2019) was published by Shoestring Press and she won the Poets & Players “Re-emergence” prize in Dec 2020. She was reunited with her late birth mother in County Cork in 1998 at the age of 37 and rejoices in her Irish roots.

 

Judy Brackett Crowe lives in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada. She believes that the right words in the right places—in chalk or air or song or memory—are worth a thousand pictures. She believes in lilacs, Latin, children, raspberries, summer evenings, the red-shouldered hawk and the sandhill crane, the cottonwood and the Douglas Fir.. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies and in her chapbook Flat Water: Nebraska Poems. www.judybrackett.com

 

Katie Griffiths grew up in Ottawa, Canada (those winters!) in a family from Northern Ireland.  Author of the pamphlet My Shrink is Pregnant (Live Canon 2019) and the collection The Attitudes (Nine Arches Press 2021) she came second in 2018’s National Poetry Competition.  Katie is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, Red Door Poets and also singer-songwriter in A Woman in Goggles – a band which, to date, has neither swum nor skied.

 

Doreena Jennings, member of the award winning Carlow Writer’s Co-op, travelled in 2016 to Chicago and in 2018 to Sweden, Wales and  around Ireland to perform her work. She has been published in the Blue Nib, in several anthologies and and is one of the international poets on the PoetryXhunger website. Recently one of her poems featured on KCLR radio. In April 2022 she was the featured poet in Saturday Independent New Irish Writing.

 

Caroline R. Freeman is a poet born and raised in Mississippi. After receiving her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, she has enjoyed teaching writing classes at colleges and universities in Maryland, Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi. She and her husband, Will, are raising a beautiful baby girl, Erin, and a spirited four-year-old, Henry, in Hattiesburg where she aggressively gardens and fancies herself the family historian. 

 

Julia Forster is a novelist and author of non-fiction. She is the Co-Director of The Literary Consultancy’s Being A Writer and she also works as a freelance publicist for independent presses and literary festivals. Having recently completed a Diploma in Spiritual Development, she is training to become a coach, specialising in working with authors and poets. In summer 2023, she’s launching a writers’ retreat outside Machynlleth, mid-Wales, from a north American-style cabin that her husband has been building by hand from larch felled from a woodland opposite the garden. 

 

Joshua Sauvageau was born and reared on the unremarkable plains of rural North Dakota. He joined the US Navy at 20. For six years, he operated a nuclear reactor operator on an aircraft carrier, where, in his downtime, he scribbled poetry in the bilge and against bulkheads. At present, he is a 42-year-old classical music recording engineer in Chicago. He once visited the Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota. 

 

Nicole Adabunu is a young writer interested in the kind of work that devastates. Currently, she is a first year MFA Poetry Candidate and Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the recipient of a 2021 Academy of American Poets University Prize, and her poems have appeared or are forthcoming from Poets.org, Writer’s Digest, and The Greensboro Review. She is an avid hater of dog Instagram accounts written in first person.

 

Jonathan Greenhause’s first poetry collection, Cupping Our Palms, won the 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize and will be published by Meadowlark Books in the Fall, and his poems have appeared in Banshee, The Moth, Poetry Ireland Review, Southword Journal, and on The Poetry Society website.  Jonathan lives in the Statue of Liberty and has been voted “World’s #1 Dad” for 9 consecutive years but graciously declines to accept the prize money, preferring to toil in anonymity.

 

Cynthia Snow’s writing has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Peace Review, Plant-Human Quarterly, and elsewhere.  Slate Roof Press published Cindy’s chapbook, Small Ceremonies.  Her fascination with the 17th Century botanical artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian led to a manuscript of poems.  Cindy lives in Shelburne Falls and works at Greenfield Community College.  In addition to words and stories, she loves to dance, sing, and hike.  She likes challenges, especially flower arranging.  

 

---

 

SHORT-LIST in alphabetical order. (65 poems. Total entry was 2,170) 

 

TITLE	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME
tell me i’m pretty	Nicole	Adabunu
Our Country	Vasiliki	Albedo
The Monosyllabic Suicide Note	John	Alter
Distance	Alison	Binney
The Last Train	Andy	Blackford
A few beers later	Peter	Borchers
Silent Movie	John	Claxton
Revolutions	Alan	Coombe
At Gullane Bents	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
The day you buy me a Mandarina Duck rose dawn wallet	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
Safe	A.M.	Cousins
Bone	A.M.	Cousins
Love’s Latitudes	Judy	Crowe
My Mother’s Alligator Pocketbook	Elizabeth	Edelglass
Roadrunner’s Crayon	Theodore	Eisenberg
From Claudia	David	Evans
I Didn’t Know My Father’s Father	Attracta	Fahy
Rear Window	Frank	Farrelly
Resurrection	Simon	Fitzwilliam Hall
Heirloom	Kate	Flannery
Flying north, a war story (revised)	Stacey	Forbes
Invisible Sisterhood	Julia	Forster
Gourds	Caroline	Freeman
My Dad Sent Me and I Got Raped	Bill	Garten
Self Portrait as a Spermatozoon	Norman	Goodwin
The Perfect Dad	Jonathan	Greenhause
Everything, for a Reason	Jonathan	Greenhause
Retreat	Katie	Griffiths
A Trumpeter in Sumy Plays the Ukrainian National Anthem…	Matt	Hohner
At the Missouri Pacific Depot, Where, in 1931, You Holed Up for Three Days and Drank	Justin	Hunt
Blue Jeans	Doreena	Jennings
Railings	Doreena	Jennings
Secrets of the Gumbo	karla	k
To Abandon A Drowning Man	Madelyn	Kennebeck
An absence of bees	jane	killingbeck
Mr. Smith	Debbie	Knight
I say I want the world to look like poetry again	K. T.	Landon
The Steps of No. 93	Peter	Lindley
memo to Ginsberg	Paul	Lojeski
The Troubles	Seán	Martin
Sugar Cube	Aparna	Mitra
Wudu	Ariel	Mokdad
The Saoirse-Ronan-Poetry-Plan	Daniel	Myers
The Glam Night	Beatrice	Nori
I Have Kept Your Phone	Damen	O’Brien
Leaving Home at Eighteen	Eugene	O´Hare
All Saints Night	Patricia	Osborne
Sociology	Kelley	Pujol
ON THE EVE OF THE END OF THE WORLD	Liz	Purvis
Ghost Bicycle	Dilys	Rose
Stick ball cemetery	Joshua	Sauvageau
Love	Robin	Schwarz
Petrified	Diane	Sexton
The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove	Susan	Shepherd
Geography Lesson	Laura	Shore
Banana University	Di	Slaney
Petsamo	Morag	Smith
I wear my jewels like a prayer FFP22	Morag	Smith
For Leonard	Cynthia	Snow
On the Eve of the Piano Exam	Jean	Tuomey
Transformation	Jean	Tuomey
Old Man	Derval	Walsh
The Dogs of Mariupol Address their Former Owners	Arne	Weingart
The Invisible Orchestra	John	Williams
I was never subtle	Anna	Woodford

---

 

 

LONG-LIST in alphabetical order. (247 poems. Total entry was 2,170)

tell me i’m pretty	Nicole	Adabunu
News from Agnieszka/ & Just Across the Border	Mara	Adamitz Scrupe
Invocation	George	Adams
Our Country	Vasiliki	Albedo
Love is an endurance sport	Simon	Alderwick
Mother	Kahle	Alford
the drama I missed	Nick	Allen
Selfie, Overheard, Afghanistan	John	Alter
The Monosyllabic Suicide Note	John	Alter
Dad	Nitsa	Anastasiades
Spring	Eliza	Anise
Immram	Philip	Armstrong
Sprung Song	John	Aske
The Other Ones	Ahana	Banerji
Coast	Tom	Barnett
The Boatman	Tom	Barnett
Distance	Alison	Binney
Dreams of Becoming a Local Vegetable	Shell	Bird
The Last Train	Andy	Blackford
The oral tradition	David	Bleiman
Ring	Gerry	Boland
Period	Laurie	Bolger
When the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon	Elizabeth	Boquet
A few beers later	Peter	Borchers
By the Book	Partridge	Boswell
The Return	Partridge	Boswell
Forced March	Paul	Bregazzi
Home	Nora	Brennan
Let there be poems	Liz	Byrne
Dinner For Two	Josh	Cake
Alien, 1980	Lorraine	Carey
Christmas Day 2021	Anne	Casey
Flow	Suzanne	Chick
Before Magnolia	John	Claxton
Silent Movie	John	Claxton
Halo	Colette	Colfer
The Glider	Alan	Coombe
Revolutions	Alan	Coombe
Lion Child	Raymond	Cooney
Delirium	Aaron	Corless
Keeping Mum	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
Julie Andrews’ Honesty	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
Snapshots from Beck Hide	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
At Gullane Bents	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
The day you buy me a Mandarina Duck rose dawn wallet	Alexandra	Corrin-Tachibana
Jewel of a Flower	Christine	Cote
Fairy Tales	Christine	Cote
Safe	A.M.	Cousins
Bone	A.M.	Cousins
The Prospect	Ellen	Cranitch
Love’s Latitudes	Judy	Crowe
A 1981 Sunny, Summer Vacation at Minehead Lighthouse, Ring Old Parish, County Waterford	Leo	Crowley
My Heart Races	Brittany	Curran
Tradition	Julian	Debreuil
Do You Mind?	Gerald	DiPego
Eyass	Hugh	Dunkerley
Fire Lanterns	Hugh	Dunkerley
Leftovers of Life	Michelle	Dupont
My Mother’s Alligator Pocketbook	Elizabeth	Edelglass
Roadrunner’s Crayon	Theodore	Eisenberg
What the angel says	Nadine	El-Enany
The women who wait	Jennie	Ensor
From Claudia	David	Evans
Moon Poem	Diane	Fahey
I Didn’t Know My Father’s Father	Attracta	Fahy
Regolith	Jessamyn	Fairfield
Rear Window	Frank	Farrelly
When My Mother Went into the Woods to Pick Mushrooms	Marian	Fielding
Resurrection	Simon	Fitzwilliam Hall
Heirloom	Kate	Flannery
Flying north, a war story (revised)	Stacey	Forbes
The Mentor of the Weak	Cy	Forrest
Some surprising things I learnt about breastfeeding	Julia	Forster
When I looked up an ex-boyfriend’s house on the internet	Julia	Forster
Invisible Sisterhood	Julia	Forster
Gourds	Caroline	Freeman
Me (Autistic and Unsociable) Dating a Neurotypical	Naoise	Gale
Disassociation	Sandra	Galton
Treecreeper	Josephine	Gardiner
After Midnight	Bill	Garten
I Lost	Bill	Garten
My Dad Sent Me and I Got Raped	Bill	Garten
The Night Before	Denise	Garvey
Aftermath	Denise	Garvey
Wind creatures scratch the surface of Europa	Brandi	George
Latched	Ellen	Girardeau
I Didn’t Know	Emma	Goldman-Sherman
Self Portrait as a Spermatozoon	Norman	Goodwin
Magnolias	George	Grace
Romantic Heroes	Zoe	Green
Because Writing More Poems Can Wait	Jonathan	Greenhause
The Perfect Dad	Jonathan	Greenhause
Everything, for a Reason	Jonathan	Greenhause
Retreat	Katie	Griffiths
In Heaven	Krishnanand	Guptar
Under and After All	Peter	Hankins
Such pure leaps   drenched grass      such a space to cross / s   le  e    p	Michele Pizarro	Harman
Everything is waiting for you	John	Heath
Deer Encounter	Mary	Hegarty
When I die	Alex	Heron
Sunflowers	Matt	Hohner
A Trumpeter in Sumy Plays the Ukrainian National Anthem…	Matt	Hohner
Midnight Walk	Laurie	Holding
A Cage in Search of a Bird (Revised Version)	Kathleen	Holliday
We Can’t Predict the Last Time	Lana	Holman
Poem in Praise of the Hinge	Kelly	Houle
Argentina	Justin	Hunt
As I Remember It, Mom	Justin	Hunt
How Time Works on the Southern Plains	Justin	Hunt
What We Didn’t Know	Justin	Hunt
At the Missouri Pacific Depot, Where, in 1931, You Holed Up for Three Days and Drank	Justin	Hunt
Goatskin	Rebecca	Irvin
Blue Jeans	Doreena	Jennings
Railings	Doreena	Jennings
Paris Moon	Dorothy	Judd
Secrets of the Gumbo	karla	k
Two is Company	Sreekanth	Kartha
To Abandon A Drowning Man	Madelyn	Kennebeck
Even Though He Is Not Here	James Allan	Kennedy
Pressure’s Down Boys	Peter Ualrig	KENNEDY
For Bob, on his 80th	Simon	Kensdale
An absence of bees	Jane	Killingbeck
Great Grandma Claire	Debbie	Knight
Mr. Smith	Debbie	Knight
Baldwin Beach	Mel	Konner
Frederica	Alison	Kreiss
To the Boys in My Niece’s Fourth-grade Class Who Question the Need for a Module on Poetry	K. T.	Landon
I say I want the world to look like poetry again	K. T.	Landon
The First Time, Reclaimed	Camille	Lebel
Not Knowing	Peter	Lindley
When Time Stood Still	Peter	Lindley
The Steps of No. 93	Peter	Lindley
Memo to Ginsberg	Paul	Lojeski
The Landing of Mars Perseverance	Angela	Long
Given the State of Thing	Sandra	Longley
The Raiment of Saints	Michael	Lyle
The Body	Michael	Lyle
Drift	Kilcoyne	Marian
Test Able, Bikini Atoll	Jonathan	Marks
No Word	Jonathan	Marks
Detachment	Jonathan	Marks
Sequelae to misplaced elbows & other violations	Shey	Marque
Irrecoverable Children	Shey	Marque
Insects Turning into Women	Sophia	Marshall
White Rhyme	Sophia	Marshall
One Time Me and the Dog Swam With the Dolphins They Let You Get So Close You Can Touch a Fin	Michael	Martin
The Troubles	Seán	Martin
What I Do	Wende	McCabe
Knollwood Way	Wende	McCabe
Jam	Aparna	Mitra
Sugar Cube	Aparna	Mitra
this is not a protest poem	Katrina	Moinet
Wudu	Ariel	Mokdad
there was a boy	Ewan	Monaghan
When I think about leaving this body behind–	Judith	Montgomery
Pentonvillanelle	Michaela	Morgan
Small Steps	Michaela	Morgan
Rewilding	Petrova	Mulvey
Icon of the Black Madonna	Elisabeth	Murawski
The Saoirse-Ronan-Poetry-Plan	Daniel	Myers
The Glam Night	Beatrice	Nori
Progress	Rachel	Norton
For Rain	Lani	O’ Hanlon
Natural Causes	Damen	O’Brien
Things Fall Apart	Damen	O’Brien
Night Photos	Damen	O’Brien
I Have Kept Your Phone	Damen	O’Brien
In among the ruins, love	Denise	O’Hagan
Look Away	Jamie	O’Halloran
A Week in Portugal	Eugene	O’Hare
Letter to my Mother, Five Years Sober	Eugene	O’Hare
Spigot (In Memory of Tommy O’Neill, 1936-2020)	Michael	O’Neill
Sacristy	Michael	O’Neill
Leaving Home at Eighteen	Eugene	O´Hare
Seventy-One Seconds	Rena	Ong
February, 2019; Lake Michigan	Chloe	Orrock
Hecate	Chloe	Orrock
All Saints Night	Patricia	Osborne
Time	Penny	Ouvry
Gold Dust	Penny	Ouvry
Fish Gods	Ben Rhys	Palmer
Way To Go, Dad	Tony	Peyser
Pussy Riot	John	Piggott
Minna	Helen	Pinoff
My Mother’s Parachute	Eleanor	Porter
Sociology	Kelley	Pujol
On the Eve of the End of the World	Liz	Purvis
Hyperemesis Gravidarum	Shahar	Raveh
My Brothers	Kathleen	Reddy
When Love Shows Its Hand	Jennifer	Reid
A Horse Departs	Bill	Richardson
Life	Sabel                   ­	Rideau
Like	Jacqui	Ritchie
The Word Jumper	Jacqui	Ritchie
Some New Kind of Endlessness	Richard	Robbins
Against Myth	Richard	Robbins
Ghost Bicycle	Dilys	Rose
Stick ball cemetery	Joshua	Sauvageau
Present Tense	Richard	Scarsbrook
Love	Robin	Schwarz
Last train home	James	Scoles
Unspoken	Louise	Scott
Million lights	Deepsha	Seeruthen
Petrified	Diane	Sexton
Stray Cats	Jacquelyn	Shah
The Parsonage	Penny	Sharman
Even in Pristina we get ready for winter	Lesley	Sharpe
The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove	Susan	Shepherd
Geography Lesson	Laura	Shore
This is You in the Sundance Catalogue	Shoshauna	Shy
Full Disclosure	Saudamini	Siegrist
My Soul and Me	Heather	Silverman
Banana University	Di	Slaney
Petsamo	Morag	Smith
I wear my jewels like a prayer FFP22	Morag	Smith
Dementia, or Drop the Quarter and Play?	Amy	Snodgrass
For Leonard	Cynthia	Snow
The Right To Age	Heather	Soderquist
This service includes all removable components	Emma	Storr
My Daughter Left Home Yesterday	Jasper	Swann
The Clocks have Changed	Mary	Tate
On the Eve of the Piano Exam	Jean	Tuomey
Transformation	Jean	Tuomey
A Visit to the Chinese Visa Application Centre, The Hague	Alice	Twemlow
My Old Subaru Outback	Jesse	Vasquez
Watermark	Gerd	Wagner
Actor	rob	wallis
Actor	Rob	Wallis
Then	Derval	Walsh
Old Man	Derval	Walsh
In the Woods the Mosses Speak to the Trees	DOLORES	WALSHE
The Dogs of Mariupol Address their Former Owners	Arne	Weingart
Owen’s Confession	John	Williams
Waka	John	Williams
The Invisible Orchestra	John	Williams
This Body, Not Another	Brad	Winters
Cancer Man	Amaury	Wonderling
Vimto	Amaury	Wonderling
I was never subtle	Anna	Woodford
There Once Was A Girl	Mariam	Yacoob