Feathers and Cigarettes

Clem Cairns started Fish Publishing out of surprise and dismay that in Ireland - a spiritual home of the short story - it was so hard to get published. Many promising writers of the form were going to London and more were told that the form was dying. The Fish Short Story Prize aimed to help redress that situation. Before all this he was a fisherman, farmer, sign-maker. Originally from Dublin, he lives in West Cork with his partner Jula Walton and their five children.

• Andrew Lloyd-Jones, with his story Feathers and Cigarettes. The anthology will take its name from this title. Second, with the prize of a week at Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat, Geona Edwards with The Terrible Eyes of Big Hawkins. Third is Katy Darby with Pussycat, Pussycat. There are eleven runners-up, which will all feature in the 2003 Fish Anthology along with the first, second and third. (Not in order, all are equal runners-up) Freda Churches - The Visit Sophie Spalding - Locked Down Mia Gallagher - All Bones Terese R Funke - Just the Way He Liked It Virginia McRae - Sentenced to Death by Stoning G Ochsner - The Hidden Lives of Lakes Sean Lusk - Pursuit of the Invisible Woman Jason Bellipanni - The Last Elfe-Mite Linda E Clopton - Mazes Elizabeth Brinkley - Tinkerbell Morgan McDermott - Tow

"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 for writers everywhere." Frank McCourt