McCorkle broke ranks as a newly published author when Algonquin Books, her North Carolina-based publisher, simultaneously released her first two novels, July 7th and The Cheer Leader in 1984. She has been a darling of critics, garnering five New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year citations as well as other prestigious awards. As of 2006, she had three short story collections and five novels in print, all published by Algonquin.

Creatures of Habit, the collection in which “Fish” was published, was well received by critics. Joanne Wilkinson, reviewing for Booklist, considers McCorkle's collection to be darker than her other work, which is not a negative assessment, simply an observation. Her summation is that McCorkle “writes near-perfect dialogue and is able to create powerful emotional moods within the space of a few paragraphs.” An unsigned review from Publishers Weekly is equally glowing, congratulating the author on...