Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

On behalf of all of us at Fish, congratulations to all of you who made the long and the short-lists. 

Apologies for the delay in this announcement.

The 10 winners will be published in the Fish Anthology 2024.

The launch will be during the West Cork Literary Festival, Bantry, Ireland – 15 July. Venue: Marino Church, 6.30 pm. It is a free event and all are welcome.

(There were 1,256 entries to the competition.)

 

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First Prize:

Second Sight by Alison Fields

 

 

 

Second Prize:

The Other Life by Eve Thomson

 

 

 

Third Prize:

Continuity Error by Ewan Gault

 

 

 

Honorary Mentions (no particular order):

 

Cargo by Cath Sampson

 

 

The Liberating Death of Freedom by Joshua Davis

 

 

The Nail House by Amanda Hildebrandt

 

 

My da’s a Hero by Laura Kyle

 

 

The Púca’s Share by Monica Corish

 

 

Polishing The Silence by Rowland Cooke

 

 

Derry Blue by Garret Dwyer Joyce

 

 

 

 

Sarah Hall’s comments on the ten winning stories:

 

Winner – Second Sight

What a wonderful, fully-rounded and gripping story this is! The characterisations, landscaping and the drama are so well calibrated; it feels like a vivid, compressed, atmospheric world, with humane and dynamic personalities inside that have histories and emotional complexity. All the component parts work well together. The prose is beautiful, perfectly-gaged, tense, clean, suited to both place and character; the descriptions are both astute and evocative. It’s a very rewarding read, and it utterly transported me while reading – I forgot where I was completely! – appealing to all the senses, visually stimulating, and page-turning.  

 

Second Place – The Other Life

This is a really intelligent, coruscating, witty piece of writing that skilfully uses the very compelling and entertaining voice of its main character to explore family relationships, history, gender dynamics and the drama/art controversy set up by its premise. The story unfolds really skilfully and surprisingly. This author has a brilliant talent for narrative voice and intrigue, and an ability to create strangeness and disquiet (the operating keys of the form), and to move the reader without being sentimental.

 

Third Place – Continuity Error

A fantastic, very atmospheric tale, that is both funny and tragic. The drama is really well contained, with a sense of context around it – a hinterland – which is a sign of a writer who really understand the form of the short story, what to include, and what to allude to. I loved the use of the demotic, and the language and descriptions – the metaphors especially – are so well written. The choice of subject is unusual, marginal, and very well handled. Much admiration for this writer. 

 

Runners Up:

Cargo –   
A very well written story, with a neat community drama inside, an interesting shift of narrative perspectives, and careful handling of history.

 

The Liberating Death of Freedom –
This is a skilfully handled story, that keeps a lid on the tension and keeps a steady, suitable, almost detached tone throughout, which, by the end of the story, comes into its own and pays dividends. 

 

The Nail House – 
A super, smart, colourful and playfully linguistic tale, which is a riot to read and uses its odder qualities to brilliant ends. 

 

My da’s A Hero – 
A great attempt at a story with driving plot, using political troubles and character conflict to create a small crucible of tension, intrigue and revelation. 

 

The Puca’s Share – 
Loved the creativity and playful inventiveness of this story, which lands somewhere between adult & children’s fiction and has a real sense of folkloric verve and moral engagement to it. 

 

Polishing The Silence – 
A compelling, subversive story, that takes on disquieting subject matter, human flaws and breaking points, and walks a tricky line with them using cleverly understated prose.

 

Derry Blue – 
A melancholy, cleanly written story about trauma, the loneliness of grief, and how the aftermath of damage and loss has no neat ending.

 

 

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Short-list:

(alphabetical order) There are 46 stories on the short-list. 

 

Alex Rourke	Amphibian
Alison Fields	Second Sight
Amanda Hildebrandt	The Nail House
Cathy Sampson	Cargo
Chloe Banks	Blighty One
Clayton Bradshaw	The Two Things Blassie Knows
Dale Marie	Shadow Companions
Dan Micklethwaite	Like Everest Maybe, or El Capitan
David Smith	Kintsugi
deirdre devally	The Inquest
Donna Brown	Suddenly, and with Flowers
Elizabeth Whyatt	Another Country
Elizabeth Whyatt	Indigo Shore
Eve Thomson	The Other Life
Ewan Gault	Continuity Error
Garret Dwyer Joyce	Derry Blue
Jay McKenzie	Hairdressing Tips for Ugly Girls
Joshua Davis	The Liberating Death of Freedom
Julian Wakeling	Greetings From LA
Justine Busto	Espejo Majico
Kyleigh Leddy	Perpetual Sunset
Laura Kyle	My da’s a Hero
Lesley Bannatyne	Coaxing Sugar From the Trees
Liam Keller	Fill Your Pockets With Stones
Liz Houchin	Fluorescent Blues
Liza Hartley	The Sound of the Pigs
Lorcan Byrne	The Egret
Maggie Ling	The Last Time I Saw Richard
Marc Joan	Golden Mummy
Mark Johnson	All Good
Martin Costello	Eddie Grouse
Matilda KIME	REST
Max Youngman	WHITE RABBITS
Monica Corish	The Púca’s Share
Natasha Hutcheson	Gill Drayton’s Plunder – a Scrapbook
Niamh Mac Cabe	The Third Beagle
Rachel Bowman	Help for Kitty Hopkins’ Nerves
Ronan Ryan	Ghoul
Rowland Cooke	Polishing the Silence
Rupert Dastur	Love, at the Deepest Point
sean coffey	Academic Affairs
Shamaine Loo	The Second Can Wait
Sheila Killian	Flight
Sofie De Smyter	Q&A
Thomas Gabrielson	NOT THAT EASY
Vincent Barton	HAPAX LEGOMENON

 

 

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Long-list:

(alphabetical order)

There are 134 stories in the long-list. 

 

Adam Oliver	La Hora Azul
Alex Rourke	Amphibian
Alexander Cullen	Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Alice Murray	Greta
Alison Fields	Second Sight
AM Ruiz Zepeda	Leopard Seals
Amanda Garrie	Leaving the Sea
Amanda Hildebrandt	No Safe Place
Amanda Hildebrandt	The Nail House
Andrew Hanson	In Place of Ashes
Ann Landi	Three Women
Anna Linstrum	He Sits Amid His Finery
Ben James	Animal Spirits
Benedict Pignatelli	A Murder of Crows
Bill Zaget	The Enfolding Space
Cathy Sampson	Cargo
Charles Cooper	Pas Si Prêt à Porter (Not So Ready to Wear)
Chloe Banks	Blighty One
Clayton Bradshaw	The Two Things Blassie Knows
Dale Marie	Shadow Companions
Dan Micklethwaite	Like Everest Maybe, or El Capitan
Dan Winterson	About Now Sounds Right
Daniel Larbi	Board of Governors of Shepherd High School
David Smith	Kintsugi
deirdre devally	The Inquest
Dennis McNamara	By Sea By Land
Donna Brown	Suddenly, and with Flowers
Dylan Pritchard	Vergogna
Edward Fry	Best of Three
Elaine McCluskey	Father Eduardo
Elizabeth Whyatt	Another Country
Elizabeth Whyatt	Indigo Shore
emily grabham	Joy Lane
Emily Ruth Ford	See Me
Emma Penruddock	The Shape of an S
Esme Gutch	The Only Truth She Knows is Pa…
Evan Boyer	Smuggling Seminar for the Elderly and Disabled
Eve Thomson	The Other Life
Ewan Gault	Continuity Error
Feargal Ó Dubhghaill	My Quizmaster Voice
Finn Dignan	The Standstill
Frances Gapper	Mrs Foxglove
Garret Dwyer Joyce	Derry Blue
Gill Gregory	The Speck In Her Eye
Guy Mitchell	Saver Girl
Hilary Bell	Cliffs
hugh mccormack	Keep Spinning
Jack Z	Hurling
James Lee	Ed
Jane Dabate	Garbage
Jay McKenzie	Hairdressing Tips for Ugly Girls
Jennifer Bailey	A Fish Story
Jessica White	Esther
Jim O’Connor	Et in Arcadia
John Fullman	Luck…A Long Covid Weekend
Jon Stapley	No Exceptions
Joshua Davis	The Liberating Death of Freedom
Julian Wakeling	Greetings From LA
Juliet Hill	In the Doorway
Justine Busto	Espejo Majico
justine sweeney	Coins in My Fist
Katrina Moinet	Borderline Discomfort
Kate Lockwood Jefford	Dead Friend’s Coat
Kieran Marsh	BLESSED IS THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB
Kyleigh Leddy	Perpetual Sunset
Laura Kyle	My da’s a Hero
Lesley Bannatyne	Coaxing Sugar From the Trees
Liam Keller	Fill Your Pockets With Stones
Lindsay Gillespie	Window Dressing
Liz Houchin	Fluorescent Blues
Liza Hartley	The Sound of the Pigs
Lorcan Byrne	Rock Dove
Lorcan Byrne	Scallop Shell
Lorcan Byrne	The Egret
Louis Hall	Album Track
M.G. Eugene	Through the Waves of a Melody
Maggie Harris	Under the crab-apple tree
Maggie Ling	The Last Time I Saw Richard
Marc Joan	Golden Mummy
Marc Joan	The Law of the Little Fishes
Marc Joan	The Year That Nothing Comes
Marco Patitucci	Love Means Nothing
Marion Quednau	Pairs of Shoes
Mark de Rond	Summer in Southwark
Mark Johnson	All Good
Martin Costello	Eddie Grouse
Martin Daly	Deora Dé
Mary Black	The Thaw
Mary Black	Her Handsome Prints
Mary Shovelin	The White March
Matilda KIME	REST
Max Youngman	WHITE RABBITS
Megan Jennaway	Radio Hour
Michael Males	Acquired Daughter
Michelle Crowell	The Drama of an Unwanted Separation
Monica Corish	The Púca’s Share
nada marjanovich	The Leftovers
Natalie Southworth	The Pocket Book
Natasha Hutcheson	Gill Drayton’s Plunder – A Scrapbook
Niamh Mac Cabe	The Third Beagle
Nick Okapi	Ministry of Justification
Nikki Barrowclough	Once….
Nina Cullinane	The Fort
Oscar Maloney Hill	Peel
Patricia Mullin	Hush
Paul Bassett Davies	Fit
Paul Buchheit	Crayon Games
Penny Frances	Exposure
Penny Simpson	Until your wild world ends
Peter Hankins	Nemo Kizh – the Fight Against Beauty
Peter Rodgers	One last flirtation
Peter Rose	Illegal Aliens
Phil Cummins	Mug
Rachel Bowman	Help for Kitty Hopkins’ Nerves
Rina Soloveitchik	Her Wholeness
Robert Daseler	A Dictionary of Loneliness
Ronan Ryan	Ghoul
Ronnie Greig	The Night They Bombed Belfast
Rosey Darbishire	S.W.A.L.K
Rowland Cooke	Polishing the Silence
Rupert Dastur	Love, at the Deepest Point
S A Lunn	We’re Not Getting Divorced
Sara Roberts	Seed
sean coffey	Academic Affairs
Shamaine Loo	The Second Can Wait
Shamaine Loo	The Spider Spirits
Shannon Savvas	The Resurrection of Michalis Charalambous
Sharryn Ryan	Bespangling Every Bough
Sheila Killian	Flight
Sofie De Smyter	Q&A
Sophie James	Substitutes
Stephen Flanagan	The Roboticist
Susan Wigmore	OTHER
Tina Cameron	Reckless Redemption
Thomas Gabrielson	BLANK PAGE
Thomas Gabrielson	NOT THAT EASY
Tracey Shillito	Reunion
vincent Barton	HAPAX LEGOMENON
Will Maclean	Quantitative Easing
Ximena Escobar de Nogales	AN INFLATABLE HERO
Zandra Carrington	Maurice and Finnian

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

From all of us at Fish, thank you for entering your flashes. Congratulations to the writers who  were short or long-listed, and in particular to the 11 winners whose flash stories will be published in the Fish Anthology 2024.

The launch will be during the West Cork Literary Festival, Bantry, Ireland – 15 July. Venue: Marino Church, 6.30 pm. It is a free event and all are welcome.

 

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Winners

Here are the 10 winning Flash Fiction Stories, as chosen by Michelle Elvy, to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2024.

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

 

 

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FIRST PLACE

Messiah: by Kate O’Grady

A story that feels energetic and unbound, but is finely crafted, about individual anguish and loss, and collective responsibility and guilt.  The reader is caught from the very start – from the opening lines that suggest innocence alongside a more sinister sense of hysteria. And by the end, the collective ‘we’ can’t be escaped; we feel, eerily, hope in the remembering but also intense regret. We see the cruelty of children, the human potential for bullying. The tone is controlled as it moves from early antics to serious concerns for survival, as it shifts from past-tense memories to present-tense grief. The extended saviour metaphor is created in the dark spaces between fantasy and reality, and the use of second person – and the unforgettable image of the greatcoat and Docs – builds both tension and tenderness. A beautifully haunting story that surprised me and did not let go.

 

 

SECOND PLACE

Starship Borders General:  by Susan Shepherd

This story begins simply enough but before you know it you’re in a whole community, an entire world. And even if dead serious, the language is lively and playful: a baby’s heart-shaped nostrils, son singing ‘You are my sunshine’ and the fishmonger, with ‘a turmoil of porpoises rolling in the blue carpet tiles of his wake’. The neatly ordered details in this narrative make it memorable: a father’s departure and a mother’s ‘mock croc handbag’; the whirr of the radiology machine and the memory of a cake with buttercream paste. This is sensory writing invoking the maddening present and the dreamy past, the borders fluid; despite the intensity of death or near-death in the ward, there is an overall feeling of jubilation at the unexpectedness of life. The final phrase sticks: ‘the colour of delicious’. It’s not where we think we are heading, and it’s just right.

 

THIRD PLACE

 

Blue Moon Memory: by PS Duffy

The casual voice invites us into this story; it’s familiar and comfortable. But this is not a comfortable story. What begins as a seemingly romantic encounter moves through a maelstrom of emotions, flashing backward and forward, tangling images and feelings in a brief moment of contact. The moment blurs to memory, and the story is alive with living and re-living. Here, a play with words that shows the uncertainty of the narrator-character, but also the careful rhythms of the writing:  ‘when you stumbled, when I stumbled, when we stumbled into, I don’t know, the best of us’. What is striking is not only the story (of now, of then, of the residue of surviving), but the way this story is written, (the fragments, the repeated  ‘remember?’), even as we are reading something so vivid as a moment that lives somewhere in the realms of darkness, rescue and salvation.

 

 

EIGHT HONORABLE MENTIONS (In no particular order)

 

A Story in 300 Words :  by alfie lee

 

 

 

Coming of Age:  by Jo Nestor

 

 

 

THE Interrogation of Lauren Lundgren:  by Alan Falkingham

 

 

 

Pivot Point:  by Judith Brown

 

 

 

The Importance of Firm Upholstery: by Fionnula Simpson

 

 

 

I Follow: by Seamus Scanlon

 

 

 

Things That Hurt:  by Nicole Love

 

 

 

Blue Light:  by RJ Dwyer

 

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Notes from Michelle Elvy:

What a delight to read the submissions for the 2024 Fish Flash Fiction Prize, and what an honour and a challenge to make selections. The work I read demonstrates the way the form can be stretched, shaped and synthesised to create new imaginative views. Most pieces I read dealt with the landscape of human emotion and folly. Some read like traditional stories, some were like prose poems – all took risks in one way or another. The ones that engaged difficult subjects did so with an inquisitive and sometimes playful nature, also tenderness and grace. The works I selected for inclusion are the ones I returned to several times, and then several times again.

Some of them play with voice and form, from the deceptively simple backwards narrative of ‘A Story in 300 Words’ to the intimate second-person storytelling of ‘Coming of Age’ and the spare and poignant dialogue in ‘I follow’. Some explore the collisions and ruptures between people; despite the sometimes jaunty writing style,  ‘No Idea’, ‘The Importance of Firm Upholstery’ and ‘The Interrogation of Lauren Lundgren’ navigate complex terrain. Some stand out for the way they land: in ‘Blue Light’, ‘Things That Hurt’ and ‘Pivot Point’, the reader is left in a state of quandary, or wonder.

In the works selected, I found new ways of sensing realities, and what lies just beyond reality. Compelling is the way these fictions explore language, too. Each of the top three presents a steady and strong voice; there is writerly control while also a sense in each story that the edge is there to explore. These are big stories, whole worlds.

Writers of flash fiction are a fearless lot – and these stories prove that.

Michelle Elvy

 

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A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS:

Kate O’Grady is Irish by birth, but now roams the hills of Stroud, Gloucestershire trying to come up with ideas for stories. In fact she is obsessed with stories, the reading of them, and the writing of them. She also likes to eat bagels and lox with cream cheese. Her favourite short story writers are Lorrie Moore, Kevin Barry, Claire Keegan, Joy Williams and Wells Tower. Her favourite bagels are from Katz’s Deli in New York.

 

Susan Shepherd lives in the Scottish border town of Hawick, famed for producing medal-winning haggis and Scottish national rugby players. A journalist and poet – she won the Fish Poetry Prize in 2022 – Susan enjoys belting out hymns at the local Baptist church on a Sunday, and pushing her new granddaughter round the park in her pram. She is partial to Guinness, live music and the sound of oystercatchers along the river Teviot.

 

PS Duffy lives in Minnesota, where she misses sailing on the North Atlantic, yet, oddly, feels very much at home. Her publications include a memoir about her family’s time in 1940s Wuhan, China, where she was born, and The Cartographer of No Man’s Land, a WW I novel set in France and Nova Scotia. Published in the U.S., Canada, Israel, and the UK, it was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which recognizes the power of fiction to promote peace.

 

alfie lee discovered gravity and invented french kissing. when he’s not circumnavigating the globe on his solar-powered chimichanga he’s making stuff up. you can find them at alfielee.com.

 

Jo Nestor, retired Adult Educator, writes fulltime. She won the 2020 Leitrim Guardian Literary Award, has twice long-listed for FISH memoir competitions, and was shortlisted for Allingham Festival in 2023. Jo’s writing features in A Word in Your Ear – Roscommon New Writing Anthology 2019-2023, as well as several editions of the Roscommon broadsheet Autumn Leaves. Her well-received book reviews are available online at www.writing.ie . Despite global despair, she chooses to live in hope.

 

When Seamus Scanlon won the Fish Flash Fiction Prize with The Long Wet Grass (2011) he thought he had arrived (in West Cork). When the story became a one act play (2014) he thought he had arrived (on Broadway).  When the story became a film (2015) he thought he had arrived (in Hollywood). When the play was translated into Japanese and staged in Tokyo (2018) he thought he had arrived (in the East). Will the Beauty Curse (2022) finally lift his arrival curse? Stay tuned www.seamusscanlon.com

 

Alan Falkingham currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, but originally hails from England. He is a published author of micro and flash fiction, short stories and occasional poetry. He has completed 2 full length novels. Alan’s 80,000-word dark mystery, Clearwater Lake, is represented by Meredith Bernstein. When not writing, Alan spends his time being ordered around by his two teenage daughters, guzzling craft beer with his partner, Gina, and following the latest sporting mishaps of Leeds United. 

 

Judith Brown, born the eldest and only girl of five learnt early in life to seek out solitude. Then after a few years of marriage had solitude forced on her as a young widow. Even today, being alone is a natural preference apart from every other day when it’s not. 

 

Fionnula Simpson is a writer, researcher, and teacher who is drawn to experimenting with poetry and prose. In her spare time, she likes to run (fairly slowly) and cook (rather poorly). She recently earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Galway.

 

Nicole Love  is a bit of an odd blend. Malted in Scotland. Mashed in Belgium. Fermented in Singapore. Distilled in San Francisco. Aged in Boston. Shelved in Edinburgh. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh and has a gentle obsession with scotch, surrealism, linguistics and cultural oddness.

 

RJ Dwyer is a writer and doctor, currently pursuing an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. His stories have featured in thi wurd Magazine, The Interpreter’s House and the 2024 Anthology of the Federation of Writers (Scotland), among others. An extract of his novel-in-progress was shortlisted for the Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award. He has also worked as part of the editorial team for three books released by indie publisher thi wurd.

 

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Short-list:

(alphabetical order: 31 stories)

 

The Interrogation of Lauren Lundgren			Alan Falkingham
A Story in 300 Words			alfie lee
Flash Fiction			alfie lee
What You Don’t Know Can Kill You			Amy Blau
Just a moment			Ciaran Fitzpatrick
Singles Night			Faye Stevenson
The Importance of Firm Upholstery			Fionnula Simpson
Fingers Crossed			Jacky Willett
Starry Mourning			Jaime Greenberg
Faceoff			Jim King
Coming of Age			Jo Nestor
Pivot Point			judith brown
Messiah			Kate O’Grady
The Blind Man			Katherine MacGloin
Wear your Pink Coat			Katherine William-Powlett
Fireworks			Kim Gravell
Leave Granted			L Khasanshina
Newborn Mother			Mary Butler
The Sweep			Michelle Bitting
Car keys			Nat Pree
Transient Household Contacts			Nat Pree
The Ritual			Natalie Morphet
Things That Hurt			Nicole Love
The maths lesson			NIROSHA GUNATILLAKE
Blue Moon Memory			P.S. Duffy
Blue Light			RJ Dwyer
I Follow			Seamus Scanlon
No Idea			Seamus Scanlon
Wings			Sean Murphy
Starship Borders General			Susan Shepherd

 

 

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Long-list:

In Alphabetical order (124)

Rehab	AK~ Kaiser
The Interrogation of Lauren Lundgren	Alan Falkingham
STATIC ON THE LINE	ALEX REECE ABBOTT
flash fiction	alfie lee
A Story in 300 Words	alfie lee
The Door	Alison Bundy
A Stick of Incense	Alison Bundy
How Good Is Our Universe?	ALISON GROVE
What You Don’t Know Can Kill You	Amy Blau
The 52-year old man who turned into a cliché	Anita Lehmann
The Argument	Ariane Sherine
Polka Dot Cardi	Belinda Moore
A small diver and a very large pool	Bernard Steeds
1970s Kiev	Breda Nathan
Just a moment	Ciaran Fitzpatrick
Apricity	David Micklem
Try	David Rhymes
Singles Night	Faye Stevenson
The Importance of Firm Upholstery	Fionnula Simpson
I’m up here	Frances Fischer
Family Violence	GAY LYNCH
Thanks. No.	GAY LYNCH
Mapping the Madness	Geraldine Walsh
A Swarm of Boys	Harriet Whitehead
Adieux, Henri	Helen Bar-Lev
Fluid of the Animal Body	Ian Lee
Fingers Crossed	Jacky Willett
Starry Mourning	Jaime Greenberg
Mind the Gap	James Garvey
Faceoff	Jim King
Who’s Greg Badger?	Jonathan Sellars
Can’t Kill the Spirit	Jude Higgins
Pivot Point	judith brown
The Holler	Judy Luttrell
Safe House	Jupiter Jones
To the Little Old Archivist Who Lives in My Head	Kaitlin Roberts
Messiah	Kate O’Grady
The Blind Man	Katherine MacGloin
Wear your Pink Coat	Katherine William-Powlett
Shaxton’s Law	Kathryn Aldridge-Morris
The Drop	Ken Byrne
The difference between you and a drone pilot	Kevin Walsh
Fireworks	Kim Gravell
Leave Granted	L Khasanshina
Attendance: 9th Grade English, 8.00 am	Lana Holman
Buck	Laura J. Bobrow
Family – a collection of disparate memories	Lesley Bungay
Bone	Louisa Scott
Unrepairable	Louise Henriksen
But I’m Here Now	Luanne Castle
Subterranean Tears	Luka Bulajic
The CV	Maeve Shaw
Newborn Mother	Mary Butler
A Second Chance	Matthew Nicholls
Au Revoir, World Crisis	Michael Russell
The Sweep	Michelle Bitting
Car keys	Nat Pree
Transient Household Contacts	Nat Pree
The Ritual	Natalie Morphet
Things That Hurt	Nicole Love
Decimation	Nikki Barrowclough
The maths lesson	NIROSHA GUNATILLAKE
Paper Dolls	Orla Russell-Conway
Blue Moon Memory	P.S. Duffy
(In)(Complete) Relationship Conversations	Pernille A Egidius Dake
If András Were a Soldier	Peter Dorward
That Day When …	Peter Rodgers
Just Breathe	PJ Lemer
PATTY’S ROAST CHICKEN	Rachel Fowler
CARRION CALL	Rae Cowie
Mariachi Pantomime	Randy Osborne
Blue Light	RJ Dwyer
The God of Diversity	Robert Paterson
Shall we call this just a Viennese Encounter	Saara Kahra
I Follow	Seamus Scanlon
No Idea	Seamus Scanlon
%	Sharon Boyle
According to Wikipedia, Most Damelflies Emerge in Cool  Daytime Conditions	Sherry Morris
Case Closed	shirley larkin
Fishface	Stephen Gallagher
Starship Borders General	Susan Shepherd
Swiped	Tim Fywell
Dave	Wiebo Grobler
Left Out	William MacFarlane
Déjà Vu	William Natale
Dymphna	Yanna Papaioannou
The Unbreakable Egg	Zoe Arena

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

On behalf of all of us at Fish, we congratulate the 10 winners who’s memoir made it into the Fish Anthology 2024 (due to be launched in July ’24 at the West Cork Literary Festival), 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.

Notes from Sean on the 10 winning memoirs.

(About Sean’s latest novel.)

(There were 717 entries in total)

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The 10 Winners:

Selected by Sean Lusk. Author of The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley

 

FIRST

Chess with the Wehrmacht
by Rand Richards Cooper (USA)

 

SECOND

I Should Have held Him
by David Longstaff (UK)

 

THIRD

Before the Sun
by Daisy O’Clee (UK)

 

 

 

HONORARY MENTIONS (In no particular order.)

Train to Nowhere
by Sara Green (Australia)

 

 

The Mortal Shift
by Sylvia Torti (USA)

 

 

The Lone Ranger
by Kirsty Cockburn (UK)

 

 

Sketches of Spain
by Arthur Wright (UK)

 

 

These Shoes
by Gemma Green  (UK)

 

 

Alfie Plum, The Unspoken Words
by Brian Jones (UK)

 

 

Bubbles 
by Stephen Bridger (UK)

 

 

 

 

 

Notes from judge, Sean Lusk:

This very strong set of memoirs deliver emotional weight, combining the personal and particular with the universal. Each one is touching, though often in surprising ways: the loss of a child is a consistent theme – sometimes a child simply lost because they have left home, sometimes more searingly because a baby is lost in childbirth. Loss of parents, too, features in many of these memoirs. Significant international events – war, terrorism, and climate crisis, make their appearance, as do crumbling public services. The unifying factor is that each is described through the eyes of memory – subjective and not always wholly reliable. That the subject of memoir is so often personal trauma should not surprise us – these are so often the experiences that burn deep and which, when the time comes, we feel the need to tell.

 

Bubbles is an absorbing account of the often anarchic experience of a junior doctor working in a hospital in chaos, surrounded by larger than life characters – each going through their own intensely personal traumas.  Alfie Plum, the Unspoken Words is a tender account of a taciturn man’s wartime experiences, as imagined by a nephew who has to fill in the gaps. These Shoes is a mother’s reflections on losing a son because he has grown up and away, the process of redecorating what had been his bedroom almost a form of grief. Sketches of Spain is a gripping account of the Madrid bombing of 2004 and the public response to it, and to the government the electorate threw out when it became clear they had tried to exploit the tragedy to win an election. The Lone Ranger tells of two women seeking a man willing to be the father to the child they hope to conceive. He turns out to be not quite what he appears to be. The Mortal Shift intertwines the landscape of the Colorado desert and the search for water with one woman’s diagnosis of breast cancer. Train to Nowhere is a wonderfully written piece describing a chance encounter on a train, and a reminder that a memoir can be every bit as significant when recounting nothing more than an hour or two in a stranger’s company.

Third placed memoir Before the Sun is a moving and gripping account of dealing with a mother’s sudden death, while coping with the final stages of pregnancy. Beautifully observed, intensely honest, I felt in reading it as if I knew these people intimately. Second placed I Should have Held Him is a hugely moving account of the loss of a baby in childbirth, told from the perspective of a father who struggles to come to terms with that loss, trying desperately to be the man he wishes to be in this moment of profound heartbreak. Written with deceptive simplicity, it works on every level, and reminds us of the importance of holding each other, and of holding on. First placed Chess with the Wehrmacht is a stunning piece of writing. Set in 1987 in Mainz it describes how a young American, eager to understand the mindset of the wartime generation of Germans, slowly befriends a group of old men who play chess in the park. Week by week he gets to the heart of what is revealed to be a great self-deception – cynicism, cordial and absolute, as the memoir so precisely tells us. This is memoir as history, as travelogue, as memory, as storytelling, its observations striking at the heart of something truly important and revealing. When memoir does that for us, it does us all a great service.  

 

 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS

 

Rand Richards Cooper is the author of two works of fiction, The Last to Go and Big As Life. As an essayist and journalist he has covered an alarming range of topics, from coed locker rooms to Indian casinos, Botox parties, the wonders of the F-word, the search for lost WW II submarines, the sexual politics of having your dog neutered, soccer and the meaning of life, the origins of jerk barbecue, and why McDonald’s should not be allowed to build on the corner of his street.  Which, by the way, is in Hartford, Connecticut. 

 

David Longstaff began writing stories two years ago. He has been shortlisted and a winner in six UK competitions. His dark humour is always present. He is an inch shorter than he was, has size 12 feet and his enlarged prostrate is currently being treated. He no longer owns a dog.

 

Daisy  O’Clee reported for local newspapers in Kent in the late 1990s. She delivered aid to Kosovan refugees in Albania and visited Brunei to interview the Gurkhas before they relocated to her home town of Folkestone. She has campaigned on behalf of cancer patients, children in the care system and people with severe mental illness. She lives in Hove with her children Mollie and Lenny, and is excited to be retraining in rebirthing breathwork.

 

Sara Green was born in the Caribbean, then taken to England by cruel parents.  Finding it too cold, she backpacked to Australia.  Her ancestors gave her the globe-trotting gene and she is busy writing their stories – a murdered great aunt, a ‘bolter’ grandmother, and an African explorer great-grandfather.  On her travels, she writes vignettes of people she meets.  Train to Nowhere is one of these.  Sara writes Creative Non-Fiction, Fiction and Memoir in the Australian bush and Sydney.

 

Sylvia Torti is an ecologist and writer. She holds a Ph.D. in biology and is the author of two novels (The Scorpion’s Tail, Curbstone Press, 2005 and Cages, Schaffner Press, 2017). Her short stories and essays have been published in numerous magazines and edited volumes. (https://sylviatorti.com/). She has just been named President of College of the Atlantic in Maine, USA, where students from across the world grapple with questions of human ecology.

 

Kirsty Cockburn lives on the South coast in the UK. She works in Communications and enjoys writing, running, swimming and cycling. Her favourite times tend to find her on a paddleboard or in a kayak having adventures with her two inspiring boys.

 

Arthur Wright. In the year 2000, after gaining a degree at Nottingham Trent University in analogue photography, Arthur relocated to Madrid, Spain along with his wife and two-year-old son. Combining photography work with English teaching and writing, he embraced the culture and language, only returning in 2017 to study an MA in Fine Art. Presently he is writing, making art, and teaching in North Norfolk, with aspirations to return one day to the land of his heart.

 

Gemma Green is an ex-Bailiff, now online tarot reader. She has a Masters in poetry from UEA and recently took up memoir in the hope of making sense of the past. She writes best from her sofa, surrounded by snacks and wrote this short memoir in secret. Now it’s getting published, she might have to tell the family what she’s been up to. Then again, she might not.

 

Brian Jones grew up in an industrial suburb of Manchester. His working life was steeped in IT, spiced with periods as  a civil servant,  sous chef, painter and decorator, photographer… In 2014 he started to write and in 2023 graduated from Chichester University with an MA in Creative Writing. He has had a number of short satirical pieces published and is currently studying philosophy and writing a novel set against the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain. 

 

Stephen Bridger is a gastroenterologist, and part-time husband, father and writer. He has spent his life working and teaching in understaffed hospitals. If he isn’t catching up on sleep, then he likes to run and swim. He is too mean to pay for therapy. Bubbles is his first attempt at remembering.

 

 

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SHORT-LIST (in alphabetical order. There were 717 entries in total)

Short-list of 26 memoirs

 

Afric McClinchy	Bluff
Arthur Wright	Sketches of Spain
Brian Jones	Alfie Plum, The Unspoken Words
Christine McDonough	Melancholy – Regret’s Shorter, Pimply Cousin
Daisy O’Clee	Before the sun
Damien Ryan	Skeokhojeong
David Longstaff	I should have held him
David McLoghlin	Extract From the Darien Gap
Ellie Rees	Memories of Joyce
Garret Dwyer Joyce	Bombs and Bullets
Gemma Green	These Shoes
Joel Bond	One Foot in Front of the Other
Julie Leoni	May All Sentient Beings Be Free From Suffering and From the Causes of Suffering
Katherine Drago	Ordinary Magic
Kirsty Cockburn	The Lone Ranger
Layla O’Mara	It Is Here That Nettles Grow
Martin Cromie	Absolved From Guilt
Michelle Brock	Walking on ice
Mike Murray	Dan the Man
Olivia Rana	The Woman at the TUI Blue Hotel
Philippa Groom	My Hummingbird Heart
Rachel Winner	Roommates
Rand Richards Cooper	Chess with the Wehrmacht
Sara Green	Train to Nowhere
Stephen Bridger	Bubbles
Sylvia Torti	The Mortal Shift

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LONG-LIST (in alphabetical order. There were 717 entries)

Long-list of 79 memoirs 

 

Afric McGlinchey	Bluff
Alain Speed	Alzheimer’s
Alan Passey	Luigi and The President
Amelia Aston	Laila
Andrea Breen	Murmurings
Ann Fischer	Daddy’s Girl
Annette Corbett	The Long Goodbye
Arthur Wright	Sketches of Spain (1 and 2)
BARBARA Rouillard	Without Notice
Brian Jones	Alfie Plum – The Unspoken Words
Brian Witherden	Land of My Mother’s
C.P. Nield	The Twin Dilemma
Caroline Heffernan	The Phone Call
Carolyn Colburn	You Get What You Need
chris youle	Between the Cries
Chrissie Horton	The Private Life of Danny Bloom
Christine McDonough	Melancholy – Regret’s Shorter, Pimply Cousin
Claudia Cruttwell	Village Life
Daisy O’Clee	Before The Sun
Damian Ryan	Seokhojeong
David Hughes	Rebecca
David Longstaff	I should have held him
David McLoghlin	Darien Gap
David Ralph	May the Sun Keep Shining
Deirdre Anne Hines	My Beautiful Father -For-Get-Me-Not
Derek Perry	My Tale of Two Cities
Devon Becker	Who Will Conquer
Éanlaí P. Cronin	I Love You
Eithne O’Halloran	Kingdom of the Stars
Ellen Birrell	Deep End
Ellie Rees	Memories of Joyce
Evie Lambert	Freedom of Movement
Garret Dwyer Joyce	Bombs and Bullets
Gemma Green	These Shoes
Gina G	My Mother’s Mirror
James Garvey	Bonjour Banal
Jill Lewis	Arcs of a Life
Joel Bond	One Foot in Front of the Other
John Kaufmann	Eighty-Sixed
Judy Bridges Bridges	A Photographic Memory
Julie Leoni	May all sentient beings be free
Karen Samski	Fame and Infamy: Bridgework 87
Karin van Heerden	Goodbye
Katherine Drago	Ordinary Magic: The Spellbinding Nature of Fireflies
Kerry Beckett	Nursery Rhymes
Kirsty Cockburn	The Lone Ranger
Layla O’Mara	It Is Here That Nettles Grow
Letty Butler	The Dinosaur Museum
L J Mercer	Ding Dong
Marion Henderson	The Taste of Hate
Mark Cole	Unzipped
Martin Cromie	Absolved From Guilt
Matilda KIME	The Day Player.
Matt Taylor	Gone
Michelle Brock	Walking on Ice
Mike Murray	Dan the Man
Morgan Barbour	Teeth
Nicholas Murray	Ballymac
Noellyn Fraser	The Sailor and the Siren
Olivia Rana	To the Woman at the TUI Blue Hotel
Palli Ward	Pig-jawed
Patricia Guthrie	Mum
Philippa Groom	My Hummingbird Heart
Qingqing Cai	What I Misremember About a Dead Man
Rachel Winner	Roommates
Rand Richards Cooper	Chess With the Wehrmacht
Riba Taylor	Travelers
Robert Coles	DAKAR BY DAY
Robert James-Robbins	‘Nounou’
Sheena Wilkinson	How I Killed My Granda
Sheena Wilkinson	How Much is that Doggie in the Window
Simon Beechinor	Yesterday’s Soldiers
Stephen Bridger	Bubbles
Steve Stevenson	Metamorphosis
SYLVIA TORTI	The Mortal Shift
Toni Thomas	Lilacs
Sara Jane Green	Train to Nowhere
Troy Spence	Four Acts
Vera Hough	Refueling With Care

 

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