Anthology of winning stories, flash fiction, and poetry from the three annual Fish Competitions, selected by Simon Mawer, Brian Turner and Chris Stewart.

Short stories give us a glimpse of the concerns of people and society generally, at a point in time, almost like a poll coming up to an election, that fails to ask a specific question. In one year there might be a preponderance of stories with suicide as a theme. Another year it might be the failure of relationships or fear of loneliness and old age. You get the insight from each individual story, along with the general one.

The Fish Short Story Prize is an open door that's inviting writers to walk through it. It has to be encouraged, celebrated, congratulated. - Roddy Doyle - Fish is doing God's own work. It's an inspiration and an avenue to writers everywhere. - Frank McCourt - I hail anyone who enters the Fish Prize . . . It is difficult to create from dust, as all of us writers do.

I know that the best stories are those that are still untold – so keep writing, keep creating, keep the faith. - Colum McCann