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.  

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 2024 and beyond.  If you are a writer who is interested in submitting work to Turas Press, please check our submission guidelines. The next submissions window will be open for the whole month of September, 2024. 

All Turas Press books are 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 any of our books,  email us here.We look forward to connecting with you, as a reader, a writer or both!

New titles, 2024

Turas Press is delighted announce the publication of three wonderful new poetry collections this year: Her Red Songs by Chris Murray; Highland Boundary Fault by Emma McKervey, and Back From Away by Damien Donnelly.

Her Red Songs by Chris Murray

Her Red Songs was launched on February 21st in the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin. The collection is a profound expression of connectedness with the environment, poems which  evoke a delicate, yet often searing, contemplation of the place of the individual within the natural world. Chris’s astonishing command of language, the dexterity of her use of punctuation and space, the precision of her craft, meld in the creation of these create beautiful, haunting poems that touch the reader at their deepest level

Chris Murray is an eminent poet and literary activist. She is known internationally for her work as creator and curator of the website Poethead, which is a free, open access database of women’s poetry throughout the world. Chris’s poetry has been widely published, both in print and online, in chapbooks, anthologies and journals. Chris was a contributor to Eavan Boland: Inside History, (Eds Siobhán Campbell and Nessa O’Mahoney, Arlen House, 2016). Her Red Songs is the third of Chris’s collections to be published by Turas Press, following bind (2018) and Gold Friend (2020).

Highland Boundary Fault by Emma McKervey

Highland Boundary Fault is a daring and immersive odyssey that draws the reader into a mesmerising medley of myth, history, art, and a love story that travels from the Outer Hebrides to the Scottish mainland. The wild landscapes of the Highlands, the shipyards of Greenock on the Clyde estuary, the ancient worlds of story, are peopled by a cast of characters who are both archetypes, and flesh and blood, fantastical and familiar, their endeavours and struggles awakening our deepest memories and longings. 

Emma is an award-winning poet from Holywood in County Down. In 2015 she was the winner of the Poetry NI/Translink Poetry Competition. Her work has been shortlisted and Highly Commended in many competitions, including the Seamus Heaney Prize, the Northern Ireland Poetry Competition and the Bord Gáis Iris Book Awards Poem of the Year. She is a professionally trained musician in cello and saxophone and has engaged in many musical ventures that include collaborations with composers, dancers and theatre. Emma is a member of Women Aloud. Her first collection is The Rag Tree Speaks (Doire Press, 2017) Highland Boundary Fault is her second collection.

Back from Away by Damien Donnelly

Back from Away is a bold, courageous, often poignant evocation of the many ways in which the poet’s literal journeys – both leaving, and returning, home – are accompanied by a voyage into the self. With wit and humour, sometimes seasoned with a dash of sadness, the collection explores the challenges of childhood and young adulthood, encompassing adoption, emerging sexuality, relationships. Back from Away brims with insight into the individual’s quest for authenticity in a complex world.

Damien B. Donnelly is the award-winning author of the poetry pamphlet Eat the Storms, a Stickleback micro-collection, and the conversational pamphlet In the Jitterfritz of Neon, co-written by Eilín de Paor, all published by Hedgehog Poetry Press. His work has been published in various journals, online and in print. His first full collection Enough! was published by Hedgehog Press in August 2022. Damien is the host and producer of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms, and editor-in-chief of The Storms, a printed journal of poetry, prose and visual art. Back from Away is his second collection. 

Highland Boundary Fault  and Back From Away were launched in the Irish Writers Centre, Dublin, on May 8th, 2024.