Drunk Muse Press

Wildly good poetry books 

Stop Press: Our publishing list for 2022 + forthcoming call for submissions

Drunk Muse Press are proud to announce our provisional publishing list for 2022. We’ll be criss-crossing the world with new books by diversely talented writers, including: a first collection of poems and prose by Irish folk musician and songwriter Helen Grehan. Helen is renowned as one of the three Grehan Sisters, who became the stuff of legend on the touring circuit of Ireland and Britain in the 1960s and 70s. This compilation of her writing – edited by Drunk Muse Press’s Ireland Editor Jessamine O’Connor – is an overdue testament to her gifts. From New Zealand via Galloway in Scotland, we’ll be publishing a new slim volume by poet Mark Thomas, via the world-view of Fenris the Wolf. Now living in exile in Sweden, Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour continues to be a provocative voice for humanity internationally. We’re delighted to be publishing a first full print volume of Dareen’s poetry in English in 2022. From Scotland via France, we’ll be publishing a new collection by Sharon Black, who’s won more awards than we could list – and when you read her poetry you understand why. True to our roots, we’ll also be publishing a groundbreaking anthology of poems in translation called ‘Cruinneachadh: A Gathering’, edited by poet, songwriter and all-round renaissance hombre Marcas Mac an Tuairneir. The collection includes work by fifty-three poets in English, Scots (Lallans, Ullans, Doric and Shetlandic), Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, Welsh, Jèrriais, Valenican, Sami and Manx. Beyond these publications, Drunk Muse Press will also be inviting submissions for four or five pamphlets to be published in autumn/winter 2022. This will be an open submissions call for anyone of any background, and for poems in any genre – we will announce details in the new year.

About us

Drunk Muse Press was founded in late 2020 by Neil Young and Hugh McMillan, based in Scotland, and Jessamine O' Connor in Ireland. Our purpose is to champion poetry that insists on wider attention  . . . by poets with a compelling way of expressing it.  The first Drunk Muse books were published  in spring/summer of 2021. Watch this space for details of more to come.

In the Press

Dareen Tatour
MY THREATENING POEM - THE MEMOIR OF A POET IN OCCUPATION PRISONS

Passionate, direct and rich with humanity in the face of brute force and dehumanisation, Dareen Tatour recalls her experience from arrest through imprisonment for the 'crime' of writing defiant poetry. This book, published in translation from Arabic to English for the first time, is a testimony of the power of language, poetry and the human spirit to overcome violent authority.