Online Flash Fiction Writing Course

ONLINE FLASH FICTION COURSE

In response to a long-standing demand, we have developed an online writing course for Flash Fiction – ten snappy and exciting modules to be completed with online tutor Mary-Jane Holmes within three months for €195. It will be fun and useful, entertaining and educational, and will be of benefit to writing in all genres while concentrating on the quirkiest and most difficult of all – Flash Fiction.

The Poetry and One-Page competitions are all done and dusted. The shortlists and winners are chosen, and the 2010 Fish Anthology is with the printers.

Irish poet Catherine Phil MacCarthy was the overall winner of the Poetry Prize with Limbo, chosen by judge Matthew Sweeney who was clearly delighted with the standard of entries. Second came Alexander Narkiewicz (UK) with The Mirror Ball, and third Toby Fitch (Australia) with Last Night I Lay Awake.  

RUNNERS-UP

Ward Allen Woods,   Ken Taylor 

Debris Field,   Frederick Pollack 

The Fisherman’s Song to the Mermaid,   Breda Wall Ryan

Upstairs, Ron Carey     

The Public Poet,  Frank Prem    

The Slim Volume,  Terry McDonagh 

Getting Dressed,  Helena Nolan    

The One-Page Prize was won by Zoe Sinclair from England with Darling Mummy. Second was Henrietta Guay from France with Counting Na’an, and third Susan O’Connor from England with The Gold in Her Ring. John Hegley and Simon Munnery had a great time judging this competition, and read the shortlist out to an audience in a Luton Pub to help with their final decision.

Runners-Up were­
Unfaithful Wings	Roanne O'Neil
Buddhists and Elephants	Kyle Martin Jones
And God Said	Simon Cornish
The Will and Testament Before Last	Richard Bardwell
I Thought You Should Know	Julie Balloo
Wise Guys	Ted Sheehy
I Don't Forget	Seamus Scanlon

Five of the ten poets so far are coming to the launch of the Anthology in Bantry at the West Cork Literary Festival on 7 July, along with four of the One-Pagers and five short story winners. Unfortunately too many live too far away, in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, and often can’t get the time or funding to make such a long journey. Others live closer but can’t get the time off work or family commitments.

We’re delighted that Short Story Winner Jane Camens is flying from Australia. Should be a terrific evening. Come along if you can. Indeed come for the week and enjoy a fantastic programme of literary events, many of which are free. There is a workshop on poetry with astonishing poet Leanne O’Sullivan, and one on reading and performing poetry with comedian/poet Owen O,Neill, and one on “Writing For Women” with Catherine Dunne.  There are afternoon seminars with literary agent Jonathan Williams (perhaps the most useful man for a writer to meet), travel writer Tim Mackintosh Smyth, novelist John Boyne, and many others.

Other News.

The Fish Short Story Prize will open in August and, as always, the closing date is 30 November. The details will be on the website, and we will include them in a newsletter too. The One-Page and Poetry prizes will open soon after, though the closing dates are in April 2011.

The Long and the Shortlists from the Fish Short Story Prize.

"Easy reading is damn hard writing."  Nathaniel Hawthorne

Have a look at the Fish site for the long and the short of it. The writers selected for the longlist and shortlist are too numerous to mention here, but are there in full on the Fish website. The nationalities or addresses of the writers are not published, but as is evident from the names they come from all over the world and the diversity of the stories reflects the divergence in culture and place. The uniform element is the quality, and competition judge Ronan Bennett is ruminating over the final list of winners. We are delighted with the stories and excited at the prospect of an excellent Fish Anthology.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the winners and runners-up will be announced on 19 March, two days later than the usual and stated date of 17th. We are sorry for this delay and hope that it does not inconvenience the writers who are waiting on the results.

Clem Cairns

Short Stories Piled in

The hunt is on for the ten best short stories of 2009. 1,650 stories were entered online, and 125 by post, totaling 1775. The stories have come from all over the world, with an increase on previous years from Australia and New Zealand, and a trickle starting from India. This is a wonderful development for Fish. We want to give writers in every country the opportunity to be published and we want the diversity of stories in our anthologies. The shortlist will be read by competition judge Ronan Bennett in February and the winners will be announced on 17 March on www.fishpublishing.com

Meanwhile the Fish Poetry Prize - €1,000 - is underway, with Matthew Sweeney as judge. Closing date is 30 March 2010, and poets can enter online on our website or by post to Fish Publishing, Durrus, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland. Entry fee is 12 Euro per poem of up to 200 words. The ten best poems will be published in the 2010 Fish Anthology. We welcome poems written in English from all countries.
Clem Cairns

Last days for the Fish Short Story Prize

Its getting into the final two weeks of the Fish Prize, and the website is brimming with stories from writers from all over the world. I'm pleased to say that many of them are from Australia, and a smattering from New Zealand too. This is slightly surprising, as feedback from Australia was that it was too expensive to enter compared with other competitions. Goes to show, though, that writers, like anyone else, will pay for quality. With Ronan Bennett judging, and publication in the Fish Anthology for ten of the stories, and the attractive prize money with a trip to Ireland for the book launch, the Fish net is hauling in some enthralling work from many nations. The closing date is 30 November, so if you have a story, be sure not to miss it.
Clem Cairns

New Book by Martin Malone, Fish Editor

Now that we are into the last few weeks of the 2009 Fish Short Story Prize, (closing date 30 Nov) it is a good time to reflect on why Fish was started all those years ago, and to celebrate some of the achievements of some of the writers we have published.

Fish Publishing was set up in 1994 to promote new and exciting writers by getting them into print. It is always a thrill to see writers take encouragement from the Fish experience and go on to greater things. A look at the alumni page should give new writers hope, with the many accounts there of writers who are still writing well and having work published.

In the 1997 Fish Anthology Dog Days and Other Stories, we included one of the most memorable stories it has been our privilege to publish. It was called Black George and it was written by a soldier from Co. Kildare. Martin Malone was at the time a little known writer with a huge talent. A few years later in the 2000 Anthology From the Bering Strait we published Come To Me Sweet Dementia by Martin, a completely different sort of story, savagely funny and achingly sad. Since then Martin has had much success with four novels and a book of short stories.

Now Chief Editor for Fish, Martin Malone is about to add to his impressive post-Fish tally of publications. The Mango War and other stories is a superb collection from one of the acknowledged masters of the form. 

Fish One-Page Prize (Flash Fiction Competition)

Fish Publishing's flash fiction contest - The Fish One-Page Prize is open for entries.
This competition accepts stories of max 300 words on any theme.
€1,000 First Prize. The best 10 stories will be published in the Fish Anthology 2010.
Full details of this writing competition can be found at 2010 One-Page Story Prize

We are excited and pleased that John Hegley (performance poet, musician, songwriter and producer of 10 books of verse and prose pieces) and Simon Munnery (comedy writer and experimental standup comedian) will be putting their heads together to select 10 stories for publication in the 2010 Fish Anthology.

The Fish Poetry Prize 2010

The Fish Poetry Prize 2010

Fish Publishing runs the poetry competition each year, and publishes the winners in the annual Fish Anthology which will be launched during the West Cork Literary Festival, July 2010.
Fish has been running the poetry contest since 2006. Previous judges include Leanne O'Sullivan, Michael McCarthy and Peter Fallon.

Fish's guest poet this year is Matthew Sweeney, who has kindly offered his time and experience to judge the Fish Poetry Prize. Matthew will be reading all the entries so, as long as your poem is written in English and is less than 200 words, you have a chance to catch his eye and have your poem selected to be published along with nine other winners.
For more info on Matthew Sweeney visit Irish Writers Online