While it didn't win, my story MetaFamily Matters made the shortlist for the 2026 Fish Short Story Prize and I'm quite delighted. The twist is that I withdrew from the competition before the results were announced.
I submitted the story in a bit of a rush to beat the deadline. I continued to work on it after submission, making some substantial changes and coming to the conclusion that the story I'd submitted was quite flawed. So two weeks before the results were announced I officially withdrew it from the competition, not wanting a story that I was unhappy with to be published. But it made the shortlist anyway. Might it have won? Probably not, but it's quite nice to think about!
Anyway, I'm delighted to have been shortlisted in this prestigious competition, and I hope to have this story - revised and renamed - published soon, somewhere.
My thanks to Fish Publishing and to the judge Sean Lusk.
