Macha Press Submission Window
For Publication in 2028
Our submissions window opens on 1 April 2026 and will close at 11:59 p.m. GMT on 15 April 2026.
We are inviting submissions of a sample of 15-20 pages maximum of a collection manuscript. We are looking for work from emerging poets seeking to publish a debut collection. Worldwide submissions are accepted, but the work must be written in or translated into English. Please note that we also welcome work in the Irish language. A demonstrable connection with Northern Ireland is necessary, as it will make the work eligible for grant-aid.
Macha Press publishes poetry that is innovative: it may be formally experimental, inter-cultural, collaborative, marginal or a work of translation. The best indicator of the type of work we are looking for is the books we have published to date. Have a look at Eilish Martin’s ! All Arme / ? And What … If Not, Sam Furlong’s Crowd Work or Susanna Galbraith’s morsels, purchasable via the Macha Press website (www.machapress.com) to gain a sense of the poetry we are interested in. Each submission will be given careful consideration but, given current funding constraints, we are only in a position to publish a very limited curation of work.
Send your 15-20 page submission as a single attachment in a .DOCX or PDF format file. In the same attachment, please include your name, address and a cover note. The cover note should include a brief bio—including demonstrable connection to Northern Ireland—history of artistic practice (400 words max) and an outline of your collection (400 words max).
Send the email to submissionsmachapress@gmail.com by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. on 15 April 2026.
All submissions will receive an automatic reply upon receipt. We will formally respond by 15 September 2026. We regret that due to the demand on our editorial commitments, we cannot offer feedback on work which is not accepted for publication.
We will not be in a position to respond to queries related to the submissions window until it opens April 1, 2026. All queries should be forwarded to the email address above.
ENTRY GUIDELINES
The call is open to anyone over the age of 18, other than Macha Press team members or designers and artists contracted by Macha Press, who has not yet published a full-length collection.
There is no submission or reading fee.
For single-author texts, poems must be the original work of the entrant. Sections of the work or individual poems may have been published in print or online, but the collection as sent or envisaged must not have been previously published.
If the manuscript involves collaboration, all contributors must give their permission for the work to be submitted for publication.
If the manuscript is a translation, both the author and translator (if both living) must give permission for the work to be submitted for publication.
No corrections can be made to poems sent and the manuscript will not be returned.
The editors' decisions are final, and they will not enter into any correspondence regarding those decisions. If no samples or manuscripts match the Macha Press remit, we will not plan any publications from this call. This does not preclude any author from answering any further call for manuscripts that we may make.
Although we schedule our publications in advance, ultimately, all publication is funding-dependent and will be contracted at the point of funding being secured.
Submissions are limited to one per person.
Should we secure funding for further publication of emerging work in the interim and are interested in your work, we will contact you before the same date.
We look forward to reading your work and wish you the best of luck with preparing your submission.