About Turas Press

Welcome to Turas Press, an independent, Dublin-based publisher dedicated to bringing contemporary poetry and literary fiction to Irish and international readers.

In Irish and Scottish Gaelic, “turas” means “journey.” Turas Press was founded in May 2017 to support writers of poetry and fiction in launching their work into the world, and to make innovative writing accessible to readers who are passionate about literature.  

So far, 2022 has been a good year for Turas Press.  In The Dark, the stunning novel by Anamaría Crowe Serrano which Turas Press published in 2021, made it to the ten-strong longlist of this year’s Republic of Conciousness Prize 2022 !

This prize recognises the work of both writers and publishers, specifically, small presses. According to the ROC mission statement: “Without them, fiction of the highest literary merit, especially experimental and innovative writing, would struggle to find a home, and by extension, readers’ choice would be impoverished.”

Supporting small presses in this way is a visionary and noble undertaking, and Turas Press is very appreciative of the support and recognition that comes from making it to the longlist of this unique award. Congratulations to all the longlisted writers and their publishers.

Although In The Dark didn’t make it to the short list, which was announced on March 26th, Turas Press is hugely grateful to the RoC organisers and judges for their recognition of Anamaría’s wonderful book. 

Four new titles are on the 2022 Turas Press  list, comprising new work from two writers already published by Turas Press, D. S. Maolalai and Liz McSkeane; and we are thrilled to welcome two new voices to  Turas Press: Darren Donohue and Róisín Tierney.

Darren Donohue is an award-winning poet and playwright whose work has been widely published and performed in Ireland and on the international stage. In 2020, he received the Dennis O’Driscoll Literary Award, 2020. He was writer-in-residence at Carlow College, St Patrick’s, 2019, and the Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, 2020. 

As a playwright, Darren has worked extensively with the Abbey Theatre and his plays are produced internationally with Irish Repertory Theatre (New York), the Keegan Theatre (Washington DC) Piccolo Teatro (Milan) & Bread and Roses Theatre (London).

His plays have won several awards including the Bread & Roses Playwriting Award and the Radius Playwriting Prize, in association with Finborough Theatre.

Darren’s début collection of poetry, Secret Poets, was launched in the Riverbank Arts Centre, Kilkenny on April 23rd, and on May 11th in the Irish Writers Centre.  

Here is Late at Night, one of the poems from the book.   

Róisín Tierney’s second full collection of poetry, Tiger Moth, was launched in London on April 5th. Róisín, who was born in Dublin, has lived in Ireland, Spain and is now based in London. She has worked in many areas, including as a theatrical make-up artist and a museum administrator. Róisín’s poetry has won prizes in many national competitions including the Strokestown, the Brendan Kennelly Award, the Bridport and the Winchester Poetry Prizes. Her pamphlet Dream Endings (Rack Press 2011) won the Michael Marks Award. Her début collection,The Spanish-Italian Border, was published by Arc in 2014. A second pamphlet, Five Poems  (Clutag Press 2016) followed, and a third, Mock-Orange (Rack Press 2019). She has been a Hawthornden Fellow. The Dublin launch of Tiger Moth will be held this September. 

Here is Transit, one of the poems from Tiger Moth.

D.S. Maolalai’s second collection of poetry, Sad Havoc Among the Birds came out with Turas Press in 2019. This year, 2022, he is following it up with his new collection, Noble Rot.

D.S. Maolalai was born in Dublin and has been writing poetry since he was a student of English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. He spent several years travelling, living in Toronto and London and working various dispatch jobs, before returning to Dublin in late 2017.

His first collection, Love is Breaking Plates in the Garden was published in 2016 by Encircle Publications and described by Frank Montesonti as “done with such craft and immediacy that even the jaded are compelled to feel again the bewildering, blessed wind of youth’s finest mistakes”. D.S. Maolalai has been nominated for Best of the Net and twice nominated for The Pushcart Prize.

Here is Herons,  one of the poems from Noble Rot.

Noble Rot was launched in the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin, on May 11th, along with the Dublin launch of Darren Donohue’s Secret Poets. 

Liz McSkeane,  founder and Director of Turas Press, is also a poet and writer of fiction. Liz has published four collections of poetry and one novel. She won the Sunday Tribune/Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award in 1999 for her poetry and in 2016, her début novel, Canticle,  based on the life of the Spanish mystic poet John of the Cross, was a joint winner in the Irish Writers’ Centre/Greenbean Novel Fair. In 2020, one of her poems was long-listed for the UK National Poetry Competition.

Liz’s collection of short stories, What to Put in a Suitcase, will be published by Turas Press in September, 2022, date to be confirmed. One of the stories from the collection,  A Hot Coffee appeared in The Irish Times Online on Christmas Day 2021; and another, Lebensraum, was published in Books Ireland Magazine in March.  

These books are now available from our online bookstore . As always, if you are close to one of the many super independent bookshops around the country, you can get Turas Press books from them. If you are looking for a book which they don’t have in stock, they can order it for you. And if there is no indie bookstore nearby, you can make your purchase from this website.  

To request review copies of these, or any other of our books,  email us here.

A note to our readers buying books online, especially in the UK,  Europe and beyond: some deliveries are taking longer than usual, so if your book does not arrive as expected, it might be due to erratic postal services in some countries at busy times. Do send us an email if you are concerned. 

Here at Turas Press, we are delighted to engage with our readers and writers by bringing our contemporary poetry and literary fiction to you in 2022 and beyond.  If you are a writer who is interested in submitting work to Turas Press, we have two submissions windows: in spring and in autumn. Our March window is now closed, but we look forward to seeing your work in September.  Before you submit, please check our submission guidelines.

We look forward to connecting with you, as a reader, a writer or both!