Liz McSkeane is a writer, publisher and Director of Turas Press, which she founded in 2017. She was born in Scotland, has lived in Ireland since 1981 and thinks of herself as both Scottish and Irish. Liz’s poems and stories have been published in many prestigious journals, including: Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, Books Ireland Magazine, Ambit, The Shop, The Irish Pages, The Stinging Fly, Orbis, Stepaway, The Honest Ulsterman The Cork Literary Review and others.
Publications and Achievements
Liz has four collections of poetry, one novel and one collection of short stories. Her second novel will be published in the autumn of 2025.
Poetry
- In Flight (pamphlet) (1996, Lapwing)
- Snow at the Opera House (2001, New Island)
- So Long, Calypso (2017, Turas Press)
- Learning to Tango (2021, Turas Press)
Novels
- Canticle (2018) is a historical novel about the life, poetry and times of the Spanish mystic poet, John of the Cross.
- Aftershock (2025, forthcoming Turas Press) is a historical novel set against the backdrop of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.
Short Stories
- What to Put in a Suitcase (Turas Press, 2022)
Anthologies
Liz’s poems are included in the following anthologies:
- Washing Windows V (2025, Arlen House, Ed Alan Hayes)
- The White Page/An Bhileog Bhan: Twentieth Century Irish Women Poets (2001 Edition Salmon Poetry, Ed Joan McBreen)
- Slow Time: 100 poems to Take you There (2000, Marino Press Ed Niall McMonagle)
Liz’s work has won or been short or long-listed for a number of awards:
- Hennessy/Sunday Tribune New Irish Writer of the Year 1999 for her poetry
- Joint Winner, Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2018 for her novel Canticle
- In 2021, one of her poems made it to the long-list of the UK National Poetry Competition, the last 152 out of a total of eighteen thousand entries and later featured as Poem of the Week in the Irish Times.
General
The Irish Writers Handbook, 2025 Edition (2025, Wordwell, Ed Ruth McKee) includes an article by Liz.
Liz was interviewed for the Bookseller Magazine, Irish Edition, September 2023, about her work with Turas Press.
For more articles by Liz or about her work, and interviews both in print and online, check out our Articles and Interviews page.
Radio
In the 1990s, in collaboration with Producer Peter Mooney RIP, Liz researched and presented three literary documentaries for RTÉ Radio I:
A Stain Upon the Silence, produced to coincide with the first Beckett Festival in Dublin, 1991.
The Bread and Butter Man, about George Bernard Shaw.
The Immortal Memory, about Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.
Liz was featured in a 2019 episode of the Words Lightly Spoken podcast, reading Fernweg Tango, one of the poems from her collection Learning to Tango.
Reviews and Responses
Aftershock (forthcoming, October 2025)
Canticle
Canticle is a tale for our time, rife with institutionalised power struggles, truth and misinformation manipulated in the interests of the elites – same as it always was and is.” Anthony Glavin, Irish Independent
Canticle was chosen as an Editor’s pick in the February 2019 issue of the Historical Novel Review, the quarterly publication of the Historical Novel Society and very favourably reviewed by Kristen McQuinn in the Historical Novel Review.
What to Put in a Suitcase
“The world of What to Put in a Suitcase is a very uncertain place, full of uncomfortable questions. We are frequently unsure where we are, the terrain shifts, the ground beneath our feet feels increasingly unstable. These are stories written in spare, pared-back language, with images that startle, packed with interior monologues that are rich with insight and observation and reflect the challenges of modern life: immigration, the pandemic, violence against women, society’s many inequalities.” Catherine Dunne
Learning to Tango
As Learning to Tango was released during the Covid 19 pandemic, it was not possible to have an inperson launch. The online launch featured Liz in conversation about the book with Anamaría Crowe Serrano.
So Long, Calypso
“Empathetic, unsettling and engaging – it is rare to read any book, be it fiction or poetry, that deals so scrupulously and wisely with the subjects of age and ageing. Yet Liz McSkeane’s humility of attention and her briliant sense for form – especially the sonnet – sharpen and shape the perception of the speakers and characters that inhabit So Long, Calypso.” David Morley
“In this thoughtful and considered collection, Liz McSkeane charts a course past doubt and regret to a mature portrayal of the world as it actually is, where ‘what looked like chaos,/isn’t.’ In poems of both expressive energy and technical skill, she lays bare an underlying order that most of the time we can only guess at. Hard-won insights here, compassion and a measure of clear-eyed joy, sustained and framed for us in humane, beautifully achieved poems. Paula Meehan.
Snow at the Opera House
Whether rooted in Dublin’s Botanic Gardens or in the real or imaginary landscapes of Europe, or delving into the lives of Zola and Franz Liszt, McSkeane is both innocent and knowing, present and absent, as she presents these remarkable fables. In exploring the tension between personal and public experience, and the complexities of human identity, McSkeane has created a deeply open and accessible poetry that resonates in the purest sense. It is the work of a complex and challenging imagination.
For more reviews of Liz’s books, check out our Reviews page.
Career in Education
Liz started out as a secondary school teacher, then branched out to educational research including curriculum development and assessment, in the role of educational consultant to Irish and European institutions. She has a Masters and a Phd in Education, and a degree in French and Hispanic Studies. For more information about Liz’s work in education, training and social science research, visit her LinkedIn Profile.
Liz periodically teaches Creative Writing, poetry and short story, in the education programmes of the Irish Writers Centre, Blackrock College of Further Education and Inchicore College of Further Education.
Liz is available to teach workshops, give readings or participate in festivals, panel discussions etc. To contact her, or to read samples of her poetry and fiction, visit her website. You can also get in touch through her social media accounts: Instagram, X and Facebook.