Macha Press was founded in 2024 by seven poets, each with manifold areas of practice. All the founders are currently based on the island of Ireland but each has a visionary reach that is integral to the international and trans-generational character of Macha. The name resounds with the eponymous (and pregnant) goddess who runs through the Ulster Cycle; Scottish makar (poet); as well as the Irish and Scottish Gaelic for a geographic “plain”. Macha is differently read across other cultures and languages and plays with tropes of both fertility and power.
Our ethos is both grounded and soaring. Attuned to marginal poetries, including work that is experimental, formally hybrid and / or interdisciplinary, we aim to dazzle our readers with innovative practices from wild reaches of our poetic ecosystem and also to represent work that is intercultural and / or in translation. We also aim to keep gaze on endangered poetries of fore-writers which require our recovery.
At Macha, we work as a collective endeavour and actively challenge dichotomous and binary modes of thinking. We plan to publish two publications per year: one historical or apex of career, and one emerging poet from within a wide range of concern and practice. We also plan to promote the appreciation, performance and recognition of the endeavour of both emerging and recovered poets to the local community and beyond.
Macha Press does not accept unsolicited submissions at present. Please regularly check our submissions page in the site header, follow us on social media, or subscribe to our newsletter below for updates on future submission windows.
Our Team
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Lorna Shaughnessy
Lorna Shaughnessy is a poet, translator and editor. Born in Belfast in 1961, she now lives in Co Galway where she lectured in Hispanic Studies in The University of Galway until 2024, specialising in Modern Spanish and Central American Poetries and Literary Translation. She has published six poetry collections: Song of the Forgotten Shulamite (Lapwing), Torching the Brown River, Witness Trees, Anchored and Lark Water (Salmon Poetry) and is currently working on her New and Selected Poems. She has translated four volumes of Mexican and Spanish poetry and co-edited A Different Eden. Ecopoetry from Ireland and Galicia (Dedalus, 2021). Other projects include collaborations with theatre and filmmakers, which you can see on her website https://lornashaughnessy.com/
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Milena Williamson
Milena Williamson is a poet and critic. Her most recent pamphlet, Milk & Moon-water, was published with The Emma Press in 2026. Her debut collection, Into the Night that Flies So Fast, was published with Dedalus Press in 2024. Her debut pamphlet, Charm for Catching a Train, was published with Green Bottle Press in 2022. She has received an Eric Gregory Award and the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust project award. She has a PhD in poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast and in 2023, she was the Ciaran Carson Writing and the City Fellow.
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Natasha Cuddington
Natasha Cuddington is a poet and critic. Her translations, essays and reviews have appeared variously. An assistant editor at Cyphers, she co-curated Of Mouth and was a Belfast Book Festival Associate in 2022 and 2023. She leads workshops at Crescent Arts Centre, Open Arts and collaborates with disability arts charities. With Ruth Carr, she co-edited Ann Zell’s posthumous Donegal is a red door and Her Other Language: Northern Irish Women Writers Address Domestic Violence and Abuse. Her debut Each of us (our chronic alphabets) was published in 2018.
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Shannon Kuta Kelly
Shannon Kuta Kelly is a writer, musician and translator. Her debut poetry collection, The Tree is Missing, was published by Faber in 2026. She holds a PhD from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast, where she served as Ciaran Carson Fellow.
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Kathleen McCracken
Kathleen McCracken is the author of eight collections of poetry including Blue Light, Bay and College, shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry. In 2016 a bilingual English/Portuguese edition of her poetry entitled Double Self Portrait with Mirror: New and Selected Poems, was published by the Brazilian press Editora Ex Machina. A collaboration with filmmaker/photographer John T. Davis premiered at The Art Gallery at Ulster University in 2024. From 1992-2022 Kathleen was Lecturer in Creative Writing and Contemporary Literature at Ulster University.
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Alanna Offield
Alanna Offield is a poet from New Mexico now living in the north of Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Aeon, Cyphers, Abridged, and other publications. She is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast and owns Seaside Books, a travelling bookshop. Her debut pamphlet, 'They Wish They Had What We Have, Kid', was published with VIBE Press in 2024.
Previous Members
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Siobhán Campbell
Siobhán Campbell is a poet and literary activist. She is author of six collections of poetry and co-editor of Eavan Boland: Inside History. Her work combines social engagement, poetics of activism and commitment to the natural world. She has developed Expressive Creative Writing workshops to provide an adaptable resource for survivors of conflict. Inspired by Campbell’s post-conflict poetry and her research with veterans in the UK and USA, the methodology is the basis for programmes in countries including Iraq and Lebanon. She currently co-leads the MA in Creative Writing for The Open University.
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Ruth Carr
Ruth Carr edited The Female Line which challenged the imbalance of female to male published writers of poetry, fiction and drama, and co-edited The Honest Ulsterman for nearly twenty years. In 2020, she co-edited the anthology Her Other Language. She has assisted editorially in the production of many community publications, co-founded Word of Mouth Women’s Poetry Collective, and co-edited the publications Word of Mouth and the bilingual anthology When the Neva Rushes Backwards. She has three collections: There is a House, The Airing Cupboard and Feather and Bone.