Honorary Mention: Fish Short Story Prize 2025/26 ‘The Music Room’

After attending a classical concert last year (something I don’t often do!) I was inspired to write a short story about the musicians who routinely sit at the back on stage, and to muse, more particularly, about where their thoughts might drift to whilst performing. I was intrigued to focus on a female trombone player, and to wonder why she might have picked that instrument - one more traditionally associated with male players - and what her history might be. The result was ‘The Music Room’, which weaves together a present and a past time frame, and explores the trombone player’s memories of her musical childhood and the troubled family relationships she experienced.