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.