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Launch of the Fish Anthology 2023

July 12th, 2023 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Launch of the Fish Anthology 2023

Fish Anthology 2023 LaunchTuesday 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. 

Poetry Prize 2023: RESULTS

May 15th, 2023 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Poetry Prize 2023: RESULTS

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 


 

Winners:

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

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

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

 
Billy Collins

Billy Collins

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

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

 

More about the 10 winning poets (link)

The Ten Winners:

 

FIRST                                                                                                 

THE SCENE WITHOUT by Winifred Hughes

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

 

SECOND

VECTORS IN KABUL by Mary O´Donnell

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

 

THIRD

EXTINCTION by Luisa A. Igloria      

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

 

HONORARY MENTIONS (in no particular order):

 

Rosetta Pebble

by Tania Dain

 

Aground  

by Sharon Black

 

Emozioni

by Steph Ellen Feeney

 

I Explain Time Travel to my Son

by Peter Borchers

 

Park Protocol

by Scott Renzoni

 

No Items Match Your Search

by Catherine Spooner

 


Toccata for Spoons

by Daniel Lusk

 

 

 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 


 

 

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

 

Ode to an Irish Minstrel

Mary Anne Eliza

Anderson

My father’s watch

Jennifer

Barber

Love You!

Angela

Beese

Aground

Sharon

Black

Asylum

Andy

Blackford

Sting of History

Rosalin

Blue

I explain time travel to my son

Peter

Borchers

Matryoshka

Partridge

Boswell

The Turn

Partridge

Boswell

Fences

Partridge

Boswell

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

Jeanette

Burton

Magic Tricks

Finola

Cahill

Abode

Joseph

Chamberlain

Shadowlands

Robert

Charlton

GRAFFITI

Alexandra

Corrin-Tachibana

Beast

Elena

Croitoru

Rosetta Pebble

Tania

Dain

Game. Set. Matched.

Deirdre

Devally

The Harp and Loom are String Sisters

Jane

Edmonds

Aubade

Birgit

Elston

Blocked Drains

Kate

Ennals

Latin Teacher

Frank

Farrelly

Emozioni

Stephanie

Feeney

Fishing Cooperative

Stephanie

Feeney

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

Amy

Fladeboe

On Reflection

Tom

Flaherty

Infinity curve, with cheesesteak

Stacey

Forbes

Fish Heaven

Sally

Fox

SORROW

Geoffrey

Gates

Bully

Alison

Gorman

The Urn

Alison

Gorman

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

Jonathan

Greenhause

I Would Do Anything for Love

Anthony

Hanbury-Williams

TO BREAK ALIVE

Pauline

Holdstock

How the Goddess Artemus Gave Up War

Pamela

Hughes

The Scene Without

Winifred

Hughes

Extinction

Luisa A.

Igloria

While listening to NRK Klassik

Fin

Keegan

VOICE

Debbie

Knight

Oh No, Not the Beef Stroganoff!

Debbie

Knight

Paragard

Madeline

Lawler

anticipation of anaphylaxis

Róisín

Leggett-Bohan

After Making Love With The Feral Coyote

James

Lowell

Toccata for Spoons

Daniel

Lusk

The things you left behind

Jonathan

Marks

Cul-de-sac

Steve

Miell

1. laissez les bon temps rouler

Karla K

Morton

cake

Mary

Mulholland

VECTORS IN KABUL

Mary

O’Donnell

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

Lauren

O’Donovan

Ageing Poet in a Shop

Mary

O´Gorman

Sweet Boy

Jane

Otto

Why the Child Is Immortal

Christina

Park

Rogue males

Tim

Relf

Park Protocol

Scott

Renzoni

Summer Triumvirate

Susan

Richardson

Dementia is preferable

Sharon

Rockman

Was It a Dream?

Allen

Shadow

Prayer

Patricia

Sheppard

Family Matters

Fionnula

Simpson

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

Di

Slaney

Welcome to the Discharge Lounge

Di

Slaney

No Items Match Your Search

Catherine

Spooner

They Tell Me

Shamini

Sriskandarajah

Deep Listening to Daffodils

Jane

Thomas

Dog Talk

Tom

Vandel

Where The Need For Love Takes You

Rob

Wallis

In The Summer

Rob

Wallis

We Appreciate Your Work

Susan

Wolbarst

FORSYTHIAS BLOSSOMING

Ellen

Zhang

 


 

 

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

Slipface

Serena

Alagappan

Let’s Catch Up Soon

Serena

Alagappan

Shadowy drunk/poets dancing

John

Alter

Searching for William Butler Yeats

Mary Anne Eliza

Anderson

Ode to an Irish Minstrel

Mary Anne Eliza

Anderson

19/02/23

Helen

Arthur

Panama shuffle

Helen

Arthur

During the Third Week of the War

Jennifer

Barber

Onset

Jennifer

Barber

My father’s watch

Jennifer

Barber

What to expect…

Eleanor

Barlow

A Few Questions on a River Death

Gill

Barr

Leaving the Mental Ward

Angela

Beese

Love You!

Angela

Beese

Girl at a Funeral

Solano

Bianchi

Behind the shed

Sarah

Bird

Aground

Sharon

Black

Asylum

Andy

Blackford

Cafe, Heartlands

Adrian

Blackledge

Glass Delusion

Rosalin

Blue

Sting of History

Rosalin

Blue

Amelia

Faye

Boland

My Dead Boyfriends

Elizabeth

Boquet

Heirloom

Peter

Borchers

Sunday morning

Peter

Borchers

I explain time travel to my son

Peter

Borchers

Aubade of a Blended Eschatology

Partridge

Boswell

Ensō Carousel

Partridge

Boswell

The Poet’s Way

Partridge

Boswell

The Superpower

Partridge

Boswell

The Return

Partridge

Boswell

The Escape Artist

Partridge

Boswell

Matryoshka

Partridge

Boswell

The Turn

Partridge

Boswell

Fences

Partridge

Boswell

Quadri and Florian

Richard

Brait

FILMS WITH INTERESTING BUT UKNOWN ACTORS

Lawrence

BRIDGES

Longing

Lawrence

BRIDGES

ONE OF THOSE LINOLEUM DAYS

Lawrence

BRIDGES

Boomerang

Cory

Brown

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

Jeanette

Burton

Most of all, I remember his hands

Liz

Byrne

Magic Tricks

Finola

Cahill

Midnight at the Second-hand Record Store

Jonathan

Cant

Winter : Water

Charlotte

Carnegie

Bush lessons

Anne M

Carson

Nellie

Jean

Cassidy

Dividing Line

deborah

catesby

Abode

Joseph

Chamberlain

Shadowlands

Robert

Charlton

At the Feet of Michelangelo’s David

Suzanne

Cleary

I Thought You Were It

Hetty

Cliss

Éclairs

brid

connolly

Faith

Martin

Cordrey

GRAFFITI

Alexandra

Corrin-Tachibana

Rooster

Patrick

Cotter

Small-town Rumours

Patrick

Cotter

Beast

Elena

Croitoru

Rosetta Pebble

Tania

Dain

Proofs

Arno

Daniel

The Town

Robert

Daseler

Veronica Lake

Robert

Daseler

Notes on Hospitality

Christina

Daub

SONNET XVII

Gary

Davis

Game. Set. Matched.

Deirdre

Devally

Praise Alaska

Patrick

Dixon

Swearing In Swearing Out

Gabriel

Donleavy

Alone, now

Debra

Doonan

O’Keano’s

Anthony

Doyle

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

Steven

Duggan

I Never Wanted To come To Your City

Hartley

Dupont

The Harp and Loom are String Sisters

Jane

Edmonds

Selkie

Jennifer

Elmore

Aubade

Birgit

Elston

Blocked Drains

kate

Ennals

Latin Teacher

Frank

Farrelly

Emozioni

Stephanie

Feeney

Fishing Cooperative

Stephanie

Feeney

appetite

Deborah

Finding

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

Amy

Fladeboe

On Reflection

Tom

Flaherty

For The Rose Man

Jean

Flanagan

The Breast Plate

Pauline

Flynn

Infinity curve, with cheesesteak

Stacey

Forbes

Fish Heaven

Sally

Fox

A Lesbian is a Cathedral

Caitlin

Francis

Pentimento

Mag

Gabbert

Bird Perched on Top of Cage

Sheri

Gaitings

Cardinals

Kate

Gale

The Swimmers : 24th November

Joan

García Viltró

SORROW

Geoffrey

Gates

The Curse of the Moon

Norman

Goodwin

Bully

Alison

Gorman

The Urn

Alison

Gorman

The Schooner

Ian

Gouge

BAND OF BROTHERS

Tim

Goulding

CLUSTER BOMB

Tim

Goulding

Venice

Sara

Greaves

Unfinished Hypotheses

Jonathan

Greenhause

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

Jonathan

Greenhause

On longshore drift

Dominic

Gregory

Offering to the Blood Bank

Joseph

Grikis

Something like an Outlaw

Dan

Grote

I Would Do Anything for Love

Anthony

Hanbury-Williams

Sundays

Maggie

Harris

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

Lyd

Havens

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

Rachael

Hill

The Unreeving

Matt

Hohner

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

Matt

Hohner

Sowing Begins in Eleven Regions of Ukraine

Matt

Hohner

TO BREAK ALIVE

Pauline

Holdstock

Convenient Acquaintance

Lana

Holman

Sing Whilst You Drown

David

Hughes

While Holding a Bouquet of Salvia

Pamela

Hughes

Mother As Metaverse

Pamela

Hughes

How the Goddess Artemus Gave Up War

Pamela

Hughes

The Scene Without

Winifred

Hughes

Extinction

Luisa A.

Igloria

Inconceivable

Casey

Jarrin

holy days

Dillon

Jaxx

Eyes Closed

Victoria

Kaplan

While listening to NRK Klassik

Fin

Keegan

At the River

James

Kelly

Some Times a Tornado

James

Kelly

A Large and Unexpected Statue of Anubis

Liz

Kendall

Why Otters are like Flashman

Liz

Kendall

To Be A Pilgrim

Liz

Kendall

The Instant of Death’s Triviality

Mohammad

Kheibari

How to Become a Poet

Jay

Kidd

VOICE

Debbie

Knight

Oh No, Not the Beef Stroganoff!

Debbie

Knight

Rumors of Love

Seth

Kronick

Farewell to a Lover

Francesca

La Nave

Photo Near the Beginning

Vanessa

Lampert

Old Days, These Days

Susan

Landgraf

Paragard

Madeline

Lawler

the lights are dimmed

Alfie

Lee

of

Alfie

Lee

Lifeguard

Róisín

Leggett-Bohan

anticipation of anaphylaxis

Róisín

Leggett-Bohan

A Note of Distinction

Lou

Lesovitch

Temple Rubbing

James

Lowell

Your Coaster

James

Lowell

After Making Love With The Feral Coyote

James

Lowell

Hidden

Joanna

Lowry

Toccata for Spoons

Daniel

Lusk

Morning Tea

Michael

Lyle

THE DEAD REGARD THEIR FIRST
THEIR LONGEST LOSS

Niamh

MacCabe

The things you left behind

Jonathan

Marks

Aflutter

Bibi

Marti

Migraine Bulletins

Kitty

Martin

Eternal Return

Seán

Martin

Bird song

Gary

Mason

unrequited ode to an anon

Athena

Mayahi-Barrett

Mass of the innocents

John

McCabe

The Usual

Olivia

McCarthy

One Hundred And Eleven Trees

Alison

McGuire

SUBJECT AND VERB. OBJECT

Sighle

Meehan

Heirlooms

Rekha

Mehra

Cul-de-sac

Steve

Miell

Dwarf Leatherwood

Claire

Miranda Roberts

Mothers of Mariupol

Matt

Mooney

In the horse stall,

Karla K

Morton

With Gratitude

Karla K

Morton

Something to Sing To

Karla K

Morton

1. laissez les bon temps rouler

Karla K

Morton

Rift

Mary

Mulholland

cake

Mary

Mulholland

Midnight on the Roman Line

Ruth

Nancekivell

DAMP DAY

Madelaine

Nerson Mac Namara

Piercing the Psalter

Helen

Newdick

(Three Poems for Fish)

Gloria

Nixon-John

Where the Children Grow

William

Norris

On the London Underground

Catherine

O’Brien

VECTORS IN KABUL

Mary

O’Donnell

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

Lauren

O’Donovan

Le Coeur Gastronomique

Jamie

O’Halloran

Ode To Your Lips

Molly

O’Mahony

Saudade

Karen

O’Maxfield

Ageing Poet in a Shop

Mary

O´Gorman

Sweet Boy

Jane

Otto

Why the Child Is Immortal

Christina

Park

This is the Day

Lesley

Quayle

Shark

Marion

Quednau

On Forgiveness

Noah

Rabinovitch

yet spring

Sally

Rauch

Rogue males

Tim

Relf

Park Protocol

Scott

Renzoni

Summer Triumvirate

Susan

Richardson

Between

Sharon

Rockman

Dementia is preferable

Sharon

Rockman

A Woman and the Bardo

Lindsay

Rockwell

CAR BOOT SALE

Joe

Rogers

The Assassination of Piers Gaveston 1312

Neil

Rollinson

Who Killed the Carolina Parakeet?

Dilys

Rose

Confession

Christina

Ruotolo

The Neon Tower

Paul

Saville

Istanbul

James

Scoles

Dream and Dream and Dream

Allen

Shadow

The Bottom of the Roadrunner Cliffs

Allen

Shadow

Was It a Dream?

Allen

Shadow

I am a cow

James

Shapiro

Ugly Crackle

Shelley

Shaver

An Angel, an Argument, Other Arguments

PATRICIA

SHEPPARD

Intake at the Juvenile Detention Center

PATRICIA

SHEPPARD

Prayer

PATRICIA

SHEPPARD

Beethoven’s Spoons

Sorcha

Sills

Family Matters

Fionnula

Simpson

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

Di

Slaney

Welcome to the Discharge Lounge

Di

Slaney

The Toolbox

Kevin

Smith

Ham Sandwich

Gwendolyn

Soper

No Items Match Your Search

Catherine

Spooner

Wheels Fall Off

Shamini

Sriskandarajah

They Tell Me

Shamini

Sriskandarajah

Gertie Welcomes You to Woolworths & Woolco

Sherri

Stepakoff

Ghost Box

Steve

Stevenson

After Cancer

Christopher

Stewart

Spring Tide

Hannah

Stone

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

Sullivan

Summer

AGM

Michael

Swan

Deep Listening to Daffodils

Jane

Thomas

I looked out the window

Liz

Tivoli

what would do for you?

Richard

Toth

Self Portrait as Venice

Heather

Treseler

Walkthrough

Allen

Tullos

Blacktip Shark

Barbara

Tyler

The Satisfying Scent of a Hard Day’s Work

Barbara

Tyler

Dog Talk

Tom

Vandel

Just So You Know

Wendy

Videlock

ON WINGS OF SONG

Maggie

Wadey

My new notebook

Lucy

Wadham

No farewell

Brian

Wall

Rough Or Very Rough

Julia

Wallis

Where The Need For Love Takes You

Rob

Wallis

In The Summer

Rob

Wallis

Licked

Derval

Walsh

In the Munch Museum

John

Williams

Michi

John

Williams

Interfere

Mark Anthony

Williams

Paris in the Tweens

Kathleen

Winter

We Appreciate Your Work

Susan

Wolbarst

Cherry Pits

Ellen

Zhang

Remission

Ellen

Zhang

FORSYTHIAS BLOSSOMING

Ellen

Zhang

 

 

Flash Fiction Prize 2023: RESULTS

April 10th, 2023 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Flash Fiction Prize 2023: RESULTS

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.)

 


 

Winners

Judge: Kit De Waal

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. 

 

 


 

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


 

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.

 

 


 

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

 

 


 

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

 

 

 

 

Short Memoir Prize: Results 2023

March 31st, 2023 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Short Memoir Prize: Results 2023

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

On behalf of all of us at Fish, we congratulate the 10 winners who made it to the Fish Anthology 2023, and to those writers who made the long and short-lists, well done too. 

Thank you to Sean Lusk, for the time and enthusiasm that he put into selecting the winners. (About Sean’s novel.)

 


 

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)

 

 

Carrying the Griefcase or Death by Overwork: by James Scoles 

 

 


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. 

 

 


 

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

 

 


 

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

 

 

Short Story Prize 2022 Results

March 16th, 2023 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Short Story Prize 2022 Results

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

On behalf of all of us at Fish, congratulations to the 10 winners, and to those who made the short and long lists. 

I was delighted to find so many skilled pieces in the entries this year, stories that
were gem-like, compressed and glinting . . . Sarah Hall


 

 

 

 

The Ten Winners:

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall

Selected by Sarah Hall

The 10 winners will be published in the Fish Anthology 2023.

(There were 1,392 entries to the competition.)

     

First:
Vietnam  

Letty Butler (Sheffield, UK)

     

Second:
The Longhouse

Nicholas Petty (UK / Amsterdam)
     
Third:
Autophile
Dylan Garity (New York)
     
Endangered

Roger Vickery (Australia)

     
Fur  Allegra A Mullan  (London)
     
Hitch Emma Neale (New Zealand)
     
Readmission Josephine Rowe (Australia)  
     
The Parts He Missed Joshua Wagner. (USA / West Cork)
     
The Thing Adored Hanako Senzoku (Japan)
     
The Watch Case Hanako Senzoku  (Japan)
     
     

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. 

 

 


 

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

 

 


 

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

 

 

Fish Anthology 2022: launch photos

July 21st, 2022 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fish Anthology 2022: launch photos


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.

 

 

Stragglers in Ma Murphy’s Bar

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. 

 

 

 

Clem Cairns and Tina Pisco

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’.

 

Fish Anthology 2022 – LAUNCH

July 1st, 2022 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Fish Anthology 2022 – LAUNCH

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.

Poetry Prize ’22, Results

May 14th, 2022 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Poetry Prize ’22, Results

 

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 


 

Winners

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

Billy Collins

Billy Collins

 

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

 

 

Short Memoir Prize: Results ´22

April 20th, 2022 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Short Memoir Prize: Results ´22

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

On behalf of all of us at Fish, we congratulate the 10 winners who made it to the Anthology, and to those writers who made the long and short-lists, well done too. Thank you to Qian Julie Wang, for the time and enthusiasm that she put into selecting the winners.


 

The 10 Winners:

Qian Julie Wang

Selected by Qian Julie Wang.

 

FIRST

Thirteen Ways of Interrogating An Incident:
by Wally Suphap (USA)

This is masterful in craft, content, exploration, and style.
Qian Julie Wang

 

SECOND

Saddo: by Sheena Wilkinson (N. Ireland)

I felt your words in my bones … exquisitely crafted …
Qian Julie Wang

 

THIRD

Two Bastards: by David Ralph  (Ireland)

… you brought James back to life with your gift … keep writing.
Qian Julie Wang

 

HONORARY MENTIONS

 

For Chantal Akerman: by  Francesca Humphreys (UK)

Beautifully meditative … powerful … 
Qian Julie Wang

 

Blame the Milkman: by Diane Parnell (USA)

You had me from the opening: “We descend like fleas.” … truly magical.
Qian Julie Wang

 

Forgetting: by Elizabeth Whyatt (UK)

… insights into the body, trauma, and childhood …
Qian Julie Wang

 

In the Summer Before Third Grade: by Jaclyn Fowler (USA)

… brought Terri to life … I love the structure and craft of your piece.
Qian Julie Wang

 

A Cold Night in January: by Jupiter Jones (Wales)

(Stephanie Colburn´s memoir ´Milkweed´ was withdrawn and A Cold Night in January by Jupiter Jones takes its place.)

 

The Mole: by Ruth Rosengarten (Israel/UK)

… an exquisite piece.
Qian Julie Wang

 

Ten Stages of Reproduction: by Beverly Orth (USA)

… an intimate, honest portrait of pregnancy and motherhood … deployed perfectly. I can’t wait to see what else you write.
Qian Julie Wang

 

A little about the winners:

Wally Suphap was born to Thai-Chinese parents in Bangkok, moved to Los Angeles for K-12, begrudgingly worked as a corporate lawyer in New York and Hong Kong, and now lives on the border of Manhattan’s Morningside Heights. An award-winning queer rights advocate whose activism work was profiled in The Guardian, Yahoo, and The Financial Times, Wally is a Lenfest Fellow and Teaching Fellow at Columbia’s MFA writing program and founding managing editor of The Plentitudes. 
Twitter: @WSuphap       IG: @WSuphap

 

Sheena Wilkinson has won many awards for her novels and short stories. Described in The Irish Times in 2015 as ‘one of our foremost writers for young people’, She has recently decided to try her hand at writing the truth instead of making stuff up, and this is her first published memoir piece. Sheena lives near Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland and when she’s not writing she’s usually dog-walking or singing, sometimes both at once.  

 

David Ralph writes fiction and non-fiction. His stories and essays have appeared in Dublin Review, New Irish Writing, Southword, Litro, and elsewhere. He is the 2021 recipient of the Words Ireland National Mentoring award for Dublin City Libraries. He lives in Dublin. 

 

Francesca Humphreys was born and raised in London and trained as a singer and actor. This year, she is completing a Masters in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. In her writing, she examines the scope of her appetites, the role that hunger has played in shaping her identity and the effects of what she calls ‘inherited immigrant syndrome’. When not writing, Francesca teaches high-octane indoor cycling classes.

 

Diane Vonglis Parnell grew up on a remote farm in Western New York with nine siblings. She has spent most of her adult life on the Central Coast of California. Diane serves as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer for abused children in her community and lives a minimalist’s life in a 250 square foot cottage. Reading, writing and red wine are her favorite things.

 

Anna Whyatt is a writer, sculptor and dramaturg, her international and national cultural regeneration work has contributed to award -winning projects such as Tate Modern, the UK Film Council and Chelsea Flower Show. Her fiction and non- fiction has been shortlisted several times for international and national literary awards. She is currently working on a political mystery based on true events 1935-45 and a Kurt Weill ballet linked to the experiences of refugees. Her sculpture has been shown in UK, US and Poland. 

 

Jaclyn Maria Fowler is a storyteller at heart, coming from a long line of raconteurs and wanderers who trace their lineage back to the west coast of Ireland. She, too, travels to write and writes to travel, following in the footsteps of her ancestors. To pay for her obsessions, she works as Chair of the English Department at APUS. She is the author of “It is Myself that I Remake” and “No One Radiates Love Alone.”

 

Jupiter Jones lives in Wales and writes short and flash fictions. She is the two-time winner of the Colm Tóibín International Prize, and her stories have been published by Aesthetica, Brittle Star, Fish, Scottish Arts, and Parthian. Her first novella-in-flash, The Death and Life of Mrs Parker was published by Ad Hoc Fiction and her second, Lovelace Flats by Reflex Press.  jupiter-jones@outlook.com  @jupiterjonz 

 

Ruth Rosengarten is a writer and artist who thinks the word collage describes her work in both areas. She is the only urban Jew in a certain village in Cambridgeshire where she does not commune with nature.  She has published extensively in the fields of art history and art criticism, before turning, in lockdown, to memoir writing. Her book Second Chance: My Life in Things will be published by Open Book later this year.

 

Beverly J. Orth is a reformed attorney with two degrees unrelated to the world of creative writing. She attends writing and literature classes at Portland State University, an institution that has twice refused to admit her to its MFA program. Yet, she remains undaunted by its rejection. Her work has appeared in precisely five literary journals. She lives in Portland, Oregon (U.S.), with her four sewing machines, three typewriters, one husband, and no pets.

 

 


 

SHORT-LIST (36, in alphabetical order. There were 859 entries)

Title

FIRST NAME

SURNAME

Teeth

Morgan

Barbour

Nemea

L S

Beveridge

Milkweed

Stephanie

Colburn

Will There Be Enough Love In The Bank?

Tamsin

Cottis

134 Days

Phil

Cummins

Making A Glass Of Water

Eamon

Doggett

Life under water: A hearing loss journey

Rye

Dreyer

Bungalow People

Thea

Elmsley

All the Bright Stars

Sally

Fox

One Year the Pond

James

Friel

Romantic Landscape

Amy

Glynn

Where The Dust Lies (A Memoir)

Melinda

Goodman

A Welly Boot of Vodka

Mat

Greenfield

All That’s Left Behind

Anya

Hastwell

The State I’m In

Phyllis

Hollenbeck

Knifepoint

Anne m

Jones

A Cold Night in January

Jupiter

Jones

Time Present

Simon

Korner

Complete All Forms

Kathleen

Langstroth

Varifocals

Miki

Lentin

More Than Nineteen Thousand Doorways

Steven

Lewis

NOT KNOWING

Peter

Lindley

sic transit gloria mundi

Robert

Maxwell

On the March from Selma to Montgomery

Suzanne

McConnell

The Woods

Kerry

McNamara

Collision

Lindsay

Nicholson

Born Again

Bruce

Powell

Two Bastards

David

Ralph

Two Towels and A Cardboard Box

Cheryl

Reggio

The Mole: A Story in 62 Sestudes

Ruth

Rosengarten

The Ward

Nicole

Scobie

A Short Stay in Paradise

Michelle

Scorziello

Waiting Rooms

Kay

Smith

All American

Kate

Vieira

Blurry Vision 2020

Dorothy

Walton

Miss Brodie’s Girls

Lynnda

Wardle

     

 

 


 

LONG-LIST (115. In Alphabetical Order. There were 859 entries)

 TITLE

FIRST NAME

SURNAME

Harvests

Mara

Adamitz Scrupe

Ghosts

Sara

Atwood

Teeth

Morgan

Barbour

Physio

Paul

Bassett Davies

The Lifting of Abu Simbel

Julian

Beecroft

The Strange Legacy of a Diminutive Ghost

Anneke

Bender

Watching The Boats Come In

Susan

Bennett

Nemea

L S

Beveridge

Quack Quack

Shell

Bird

Sidney and the Primroses

Mary

Black

Rookie Teacher in a Red Dress

Wendy

Breckon

10 Under 70

Jim

Brennan

Milkweed

Stephanie

Colburn

The Veil

Samantha

Colicchio

Will There Be Enough Love In The Bank?

Tamsin

Cottis

Getting to Like the Germans

Jenny

Cozens

134 Days

Phil

Cummins

Man From Atlantis

Phil

Cummins

Icarus

Phil

Cummins

Mrs Alleman.

Isanna

Curwen

Between Two Piers

David

Danbury

Making A Glass Of Water

Eamon

Doggett

Life under water: A hearing loss journey

Rye

Dreyer

Bungalow People

Thea

Elmsley

The Merry Widow´s Club

Sandi

Fikuart

Labor’s Great Reporter

Jean

Fleming

Conduct: Unsatisfactory

Amelia

Fletcher

In the Summer Before Third Grade

Jaclyn

Fowler

All the Bright Stars

Sally

Fox

One Year the Pond

James

Friel

All Thumbs

Jack

Garvey

Romantic Landscape

Amy

Glynn

Last Night With the Light On

Rebecca

Godina

Where The Dust Lies (A Memoir)

Melinda

Goodman

Losing it

Liz

Granirer

Scorpio Versus Leo

Colton

Green

A Welly Boot of Vodka

Mat

Greenfield

Madagascar Memories

Jill

Hadfield

The Unseen

Stephen

Haines

Our Language

Holli

Harms

Do Not Tell a Soul

Catherine

Hartnett

All the Beautiful Houses

Maggie

Harris

All That’s Left Behind

Anya

Hastwell

Chameleon

Sylvia

Hayashi

A Muse at Arm’s Length

Louis

Hemmings

Salvaging Sweetness, a Memoir – an extract.

Esther

Hoad

The State I’m In

Phyllis

Hollenbeck

Knifepoint

Anne M

Jones

A Cold Night in January

Jupiter

Jones

Waking Tommy

Caitriona

Kelly

This Old Caged Bird Can Still Sing

Bridgett

Kendall

Uncommon Threads

Carmen

Kew

Time Present

Simon

Korner

Escape

Laura

Kyle

Complete All Forms

Kathleen

Langstroth

Title

First Name

Last Name

Varifocals

Miki

Lentin

For Chantel Ackerman

Francesca

Leonie

More Than Nineteen Thousand Doorways

Steven

Lewis

NOT KNOWING

Peter

Lindley

A White Plaster Cat

Paul

Marion

When the Band Broke Up

Debra

Marquart

sic transit gloria mundi

Robert

Maxwell

Athalee

Robert

Maxwell

The Dust That is Made Up of Her

Tracy

Maylath

On the March from Selma to Montgomery

Suzanne

McConnell

Psychics!

Alan

McCormick

Perihelion

Paul

McGranaghan

The Woods

Kerry

McNamara

For Every Bear That Ever There Was

Geoffrey

Mead

Purgatory Party

Natalie

Michaels

On anaphylaxis

Barbara

Mogerley

Dear Diary

Molly

Mogren Katt

Tadpole from the Epic Spawning

Marilyn

Moriarty

@3ftinpm

Barbara

Mossberg

Collision

Lindsay

Nicholson

ALP 650

Helen

O’Neill

The Ten Stages of Reproduction

Beverly

Orth

Ambush

James

Page

Why She Cried

Larry

Pankey

Blame the Milkman

Diane

Parnell

Give me a child until he is seven ..

Carl

Parsons

Ask Me How It Works: frequently asked
questions about my open marriage

Deepa

Paul

In the restaurant of the Athenée Palace

Lilian

Pizzichini

Born Again

Bruce

Powell

Two Bastards

David

Ralph

My Mother’s Secrets

Cheryl

Reed

Two Towels and A Cardboard Box

Cheryl

Reggio

The Ghost

Emma

Rennison

Ringing of the Bell

Marc

Revere

The Mole: A Story in 62 Sestudes

Ruth

Rosengarten

The Other Side of the Tracks in 1971

Gerald

Ryan

My August

Peter

Samis

The Ward

Nicole

Scobie

A Short Stay in Paradise

Michelle

Scorziello

My Little Yza-Baby Story

Yza

Shady

Waiting Rooms

Kay

Smith

A Suitable Dress

Maxine

Smitheram

Lost Language

Ann

Spence

The Murder Plot

Charity

Starrett

There are moments which cry out to be fulfilled

Nina

Stochniol

Thirteen Ways of Interrogating an Incident

Wally

Suphap

Heart in Two Worlds

Chris

Thomson

All American

Kate

Vieira

All-American

Kate

Vieira

The Longest Day of the Year

Kate

Vieira

Blurry Vision 2020

Dorothy

Walton

Miss Brodie’s Girls

Lynnda

Wardle

Forgetting

Elizabeth

Whyatt

Saddo

Sheena

Wilkinson

 

 

Flash Fiction Prize 2022: Results

April 10th, 2022 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Flash Fiction Prize 2022: Results

Winners

Short-list

Long-list

 

From all of us at Fish, Congratulations to the writers whose Flash Stories were short or long-listed, and in particular to the 10 winners.

 


 

Winners

Tracey Slaughter

Here are the 10 winning Flash Fiction Stories, as chosen by Tracey Slaughter, to be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2022.

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

 


 

FIRST PLACE

The Stone Cottage:  by Partridge Boswell

Lyrical pull and enveloping atmosphere distinguished this piece from the first reading, drawing
me into its arresting sensory focus. While understated in terms of narrative action, the dramatic energies of its stonework setting sung, instilling each detail with emotional depth. Its textured, sense-rich approach to sound made its rhythmic sentences and close-range images layered, evocative and rewarding to re-read.

 

SECOND PLACE

On the Other Side of the World: by Linda Nemec Foster

What attracted me to this piece was how it utilized the dynamics of flash to vibrant structural effect, laying frames of scenic detail cleverly alongside each other to compose a lyric collage of glimpses. What struck me was its skill in capturing brief instants of foreign experience, through an enticing but contained series of images which it left to resonate compellingly.

 

THIRD PLACE

Millstone:  by Z Aaron Young

A dense, disturbing narrative-drive set this piece apart, drawing the reader ever deeper into the meshes of its drama, through to its intensely clever twist. It leads us through the turns of this darkly compelling plot through contained use of dialogue and encounter, making striking use of flash’s minimalism to deliver a honed and high-impact story.

 

 

SEVEN HONORABLE MENTIONS (In no particular order)

 

Crabwalk: by John Walshe

What I found compelling about this piece was its rhythmic energies and attention to sentence tempo and tension to evoke character. Its evocative beat and cleverly timed repetitions delivered a vivid impression of the narrator, keeping the reader ‘jumping big steps’ with its child speaker, and were also skillfully linked to the overall story arc and its dynamic core image-pattern.

 

Firelight:  by Kathryn Henion

The strength of this piece is in its lively mobilizing of setting detail in the service of storytelling. It places us in a vivid slice of landscape through crisp and evocative imagery, and involves us atmospherically in the character’s key childhood glimpse of adult life.

 

Beauty Curse:  by Seamus Scanlon

This piece stood out for its dynamic tone, making skilled use of dialogue and voice to grip the reader’s attention in its edgy narrative. It also allowed this strong vocal focus to drive an innovative form and movement, generating original narrative energy.

 

Kabul, August 2021:  by Marie Altzinger

Making use of sliding frames, this piece juxtaposed two points of view on a central crisis, effectively inhabiting different female angles and voices to political ends. It used this form powerfully but with tight control, letting the explosive off-screen drama arise through subtly selected detail.

 

Taking Revenge on Gustav Klimt:  (or The Paintbrush that isn’t a Paintbrush)  by David Lewis

Taking on an effective and tonally-alive point of view, this piece dissects a slice of artist’s model’s life with wry, cutting amusement at the sexual politics of image-making. Sharp, clever, economical and tongue-in-cheek.

 

A Mother Knows:  by Russell Reader

The economy of this piece worked powerfully to control strong emotion and to cover a long history in brief vocalized details. Spoken tension connects us effectively with character, subtly revealing a moving subtext beneath the minimal and controlled narration, approaching a heavy topic through bare contained voice.

 

While the Planet Still Remains:  by Fiona J Mackintosh

Immersive second-person narration and lyric rhythm at the sentence level were at the heart of this piece’s impact. It took on a vast and weighty subject, containing it effectively through sustained focus and a personal approach, building a clever analogy into its ending.

 


 

A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS:

 

Partridge Boswell is a stay-at-home rover, father of seven, and author of the Grolier Award-winning collection Some Far Country. When not hitchhiking or freighthopping, his bindlestiff poems have recently found homes in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Southword and The Moth. Co-founder of Bookstock Literary Festival, he teaches at Vallum Society for Education in Arts & Letters in Montreal and troubadours widely with the poetry/music group Los Lorcas, whose debut release Last Night in America is available on Thunder Ridge Records. Please say hello when you see him busking on Grafton Street.

 

Linda Nemec Foster is a poet and writer, currently living in Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). She is the granddaughter of immigrants from southern Poland who settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Many of her relatives and friends still live in Poland (some of them near the Ukraine border) and she has visited them and that part of the world many times. The author of 12 collections of poetry (e.g. The Blue Divide, 2021 and The Lake Michigan Mermaid, 2018), Foster was the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids from 2003-2005.

 

Z. Aaron Young is an MFA candidate in the NYU Low-Residency program and considers himself a fiction writer and spare-time philosopher. His writing has appeared in various folders across his laptop and has been read by tens of people. His hobbies are extremely easy to list and he very much enjoys music. When he’s not sleeping, he can be found more or less awake.

 

J.P. Walshe lives in Malahide, Co. Dublin and works in libraries.  When not surrounded by books he can be found on the sofa trying to forget about them.  After starting but then writing nothing for eight years he’s taken up where he left off and finds it a much more productive way to spend insomnia.  He once rode a bike cab in San Diego and taught English while pretending to know grammar in Barcelona.”

 

Kathryn Henion’s fiction has appeared in over twenty journals, including Beloit Fiction Journal, Saranac Review, Natural Bridge, and Green Mountains Review. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University, where she was editor of the biannual literary magazine Harpur Palate. Currently she serves as fiction editor for the online journal of art and literature, Anomaly, and lives, works, and writes in Ithaca, NY. www.kathrynhenion.com

 

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

 

Marie Altzinger was born in Luxembourg, and moved to Ireland at the age of six. Discouraged by a schoolteacher obsessed with the descriptive style of Gerald Manley Hopkins, Marie gave up creative writing for a quarter of a century. Thankfully she eventually saw the error of her ways, and now has two huge suitcases stuffed with PTCs (Pieces to Consider). Marie lives in Dundrum, Dublin, with her wonderful husband, fabulous daughter, and super dog. 

 

David X. Lewis has written journalism for Reuters, speeches on AIDS for WHO, and documents for a Geneva organisation that sacked him. He now focuses on creative writing from Ferney-Voltaire, France. The opening of his third (unpublished) novel was nominated for a Pushcart in 2021, when he also won the Bangor 40-word competition. In 2022 he will be published by Bath Flash Fiction and (twice) in Sticks and Stones, an Oxford anthology of “flash greats”. 

 

Fiona J. Mackintosh (www.fionajmackintosh.com) is the Scottish-American author of a flash collection, The Yet Unknowing World published by Ad Hoc Fiction. She has won the Fish, Bath, Reflex, and Flash 500 Awards, and her short stories have been listed in several cool competitions in the UK and Ireland. She lives just outside Washington D.C., but she’s thankful that her imagination can carry her across continents and time, both during lockdowns and in happier times.      

 

Russell Reader lives in Keele, England, with his husband and two sons. He won first prize in the New Writer Magazine’s Prose and Poetry Awards and has been published by Litro, InkTears, Flash, Grist, and Bath Flash Fiction. One day he would like to write a story that isn’t sad and grim.

 


 

Short-list:

(alphabetical order)

 

There are 41 flash stories in the short-list. There were 948 entries in total.

Title

First Name

Last Name

 

 

 

Kabul, August 2021

Marie  

Altzinger

The day you chipped a tooth and touched a nerve

Lesley

Bungay

Labels

Letty

Butler

Fishes I Have Known

Ric

Carter

Brez

Ava

Dan-Gur

Karma Chameleon

Anne

Eyries

Echolalia

Elizabeth

Field

On the Other Side of the World

Linda 

Nemec Foster

The Door Opens

Geoffrey

Graves

Firelight

Kathryn

Henion

Lost Treasure

Maria

Jackson

Herring

Sarah

Kartalia

Cleft by the lines of cowards

Nelum

Kaur

Blood Brothers

Jim

King

Koel

Alfie

Lee

Flash Fiction

Alfie

Lee

A Human Jellyfish Goes Missing

David

Lewis

Taking Revenge on August Klimt  
(
or The Paintbrush that isn’t a Paintbrush)

David

Lewis

A Becket Tale: 1972

Finbar

Lillis

Rocket-ship set-up guide

Kik

Lodge

While the Planet Still Remains

Fiona J

Mackintosh

“Going, Going, Gone!”

Michael

Mahoney

The Prodigal’s Brother

Patrick

McCann

A Brush with Circe

Lauren

McNamara

Never Let Me Go

Geoffrey

Mead

GHOSTS

Catherine

Neville

Posted

Brigita

Orel

A Mother Knows

Russell

Reader

Falling Woman

Hannah

Retallick

For a Time, I

Hannah

Retallick

Meltdown

Nicholas

Ruddock

Bed Time

Yvonne

Sampson

The Sister as a Fox

Shannon

Savvas

Deciduous Trees

Adrian

Scanlan

The Twins

Seamus

Scanlon

Beauty Curse

Seamus

Scanlon

The Kiss

Jo

Skinner

Coppélia Doll Variation

Michaela

Tamma

The Proposal, Lyme Regis, 1936

Ken

Wilson

Satellite of love

Alison

Woodhouse

Millstone

Z. Aaron

Young

 

 


 

Long-list 

(alphabetical order)

There are 72 flash stories in the long-list. There were 948 entries in total.

 

Title

First Name

Last Name

 

 

 

Kabul, August 2021

Marie

Altzinger

SISTERS

Carrie

Beckwith

The Stone Cottage

Partridge

Boswell

A Cry Beneath The Leaves

Michael P

Bowles

White is the Color of Decay

Matthew

Brandon

Things I Would Do if I Was a Disgraced Soviet
Scientist, Living in Exile on the Riviera

Kati

Bumbera

The day you chipped a tooth and touched a nerve

Lesley

Bungay

Labels

Letty

Butler

Fishes I Have Known

Ric

Carter

All That Remains

Charlene

Cason

Man Up

Yvonne

Clarke

Brez

Ava

Dan-Gur

Trying to Write a Haiku

Rosamund

Davies

Driving Home

Christina

Eagles

On taking Macy’s Kittens to the Sawmill

Henry

Edwards

Caravan

Susan

Elsley

Subject: Humanity 2022-4022

Stephen

Enciso

Mountain Air Folly

Tanya

Esnault

Karma Chameleon

Anne

Eyries

Warp Factor

Tom

Farrell

Echolalia

Elizabeth

Field

Leaving hospital with a suitcase

Nick

Fordham

On the Other Side of the World

Linda 

Nemec Foster

Burhan Now or Never

Nancy

Freund

Aliens

John

Fullerton

Keys

Laura

Geringer Bass

In the Light

Cicely

Gill

Odette at Tea-Time

Heather Lynne

Goddard

The Door Opens

Geoffrey

Graves

An Imitation

Leonie

Gregson

Last Wave

Michael

Hainsworth

Sticks and Stones

Daniel

Harwood

Turning Back Time

Hannah

Hawthorne

Firelight

Kathryn

Henion

It’s a Living

Tova

Hope-Liel

Lost Treasure

Maria

Jackson

Fishtail or Why I Can’t Recommend a Birthing Pool

Jupiter

Jones

Was this an Act of God

Roger

Jones

Herring

Sarah

Kartalia

Cleft by the lines of cowards

Nelum

Kaur

Blood Brothers

Jim

King

This Isn’t Working Anymore

Keith

Law

1-800-KARS-4-KIDS

jeffrey

lazar

Colour of Night

Roland

Leach

Koel

Alfie

Lee

Flash Fiction

Alfie

Lee

The Dragon’s Inn

Alfie

Lee

Jack

Alfie

Lee

Gilbert

Alfie

Lee

Commonwealth

Alfie

Lee

A Human Jellyfish Goes Missing

David

Lewis

Taking Revenge on August Klimt
(or The Paintbrush that isn’t a Paintbrush)

David

Lewis

A Becket Tale: 1972

Finbar

Lillis

Rocket-ship set-up guide

Kik

Lodge

Broken

Laurie

Mackie

While the Planet Still Remains

Fiona J

Mackintosh

Going, Going, Gone!

Michael

Mahoney

Suspicion

Robert

McBrearty

The Prodigal’s Brother

Patrick

McCann

Mantelpiece

Alan

McCormick

Fearing

Paul

McKeogh

A Brush with Circe

Lauren

McNamara

Never Let Me Go

Geoffrey

Mead

Nouvelle Cuisine

Geoffrey

Mead

Electric Cold

Jane

Messer

Beyond

Hailey

Millhollen

The Baptism

Alison

Milner

Cornered

Katrina

Moinet

GHOSTS

Catherine

Neville

Ed Vedder

Dominic

Nunan

How to take Prizewinning Photos

Tom

O’Brien

The Mummies of Guanajuato

Pamolu

Oldham

Versions of Him

Helen

O’Neill

Posted

Brigita

Orel

Disassociation

Carolyn

Peck

The closest I came to having sex after twelve years
of marriage to a man with anhedonia [cont.]

Kathryn

Phelan

A Mother Knows

Russell

Reader

Turkey Legs

James

Reid

Falling Woman

Hannah

Retallick

For a Time, I

Hannah

Retallick

The Fly Trap by the Window Adjacent to My House

Hannah

Retallick

Meltdown

Nicholas

Ruddock

No Future in Being a Postman

Michael

Salander

Bed Time

Yvonne

Sampson

The Sister as a Fox

Shannon

Savvas

Deciduous Trees

Adrian

Scanlan

The Twins

Seamus

Scanlon

Beauty Curse

Seamus

Scanlon

Man of Letters

Wilma

Scharrer

Cider on Your Lips

Kim

Schroeder

King Cat

Lucy

Shuttleworth

Way Out West

John

Simms

The Kiss

Jo

Skinner

Eventuality

Jonathan

Splittgerber

Underpaid

Jamie

Stacey

The Spirit of Things

Nora

Studholme

Coppélia Doll Variation

Michaela

Tamma

Some creatures trapped in ice

Hilary

Taylor

Dog Nose

Brendan

Thomas

The Movements

Cole

Tucci

Never too late

Melanie

Veenstra

Crabwalk

John

Walshe

Shedding Skin

Nicole

Watt

Savannah Animals Fun For Kids

Susan

Wigmore

The Proposal, Lyme Regis, 1936

Ken

Wilson

The electric is-ness of life

Michele

Wong

Satellite of love

Alison

Woodhouse

Snowfall

Amy

Wright

Millstone

Z. Aaron

Young

You Can Only Jump Forward

Glen

Zehr

 

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