About Doire Press
One of Ireland’s most notable small presses
About Us
From little acorns
Doire Press was founded in the autumn of 2007 in Connemara by Lisa Frank, with skills and experience in editing and publishing, and by John Walsh, who had just received a publication award from the Galway County Council Arts Office to publish his second poetry collection, Love’s Enterprise Zone.
And from little acorns…
The following year Doire Press published Inheritance, Miceál Kearney’s debut poetry collection. This marked the first annual publication prize awarded to the winner of the North Beach Poetry Nights’ Grand Slam.
Mighty Oaks Grow
2010, the year the press officially started, was a year of growth for Doire Press, including debut poetry collections by Edward Boyne and Gerry Galvin, as well as our first book of fiction, Susan Millar DuMars’ short story collection, Lights in the Distance.
Since then Doire Press has continued to blossom, finding its niche in publishing new and emerging writers who give voice to what it means to be Irish in a changing Ireland. These writers include fiction writer Madeleine D’Arcy, whose collection Waiting for the Bullet won the 2015 Edge Hill Readers’ prize; and poets Adam White, whose book, Accurate Measurements was the only Irish publication to be shortlised for the prestigious Forward Prize in 2013; and Breda Wall Ryan, whose collection In a Hare’s Eye won the 2016 Shine/Strong Award.
Ireland's Voices
Other publications include 30 under 30, chosen as a Top Ten Title of 2012 by Joseph O’Connor in The Irish Times; Galway Stories, a collection of short stories set in neighbourhoods throughout the city and county of Galway by many of Ireland’s top writers, including Kevin Barry, Mary Costello, Mike McCormack, Nuala Ní Chonchuír, Olaf Tyaransen and Julian Gough; Deirdre Unforgiven: A Journal of Sorrows, a play by Eamon Carr; and debut poetry collections, The Woman on the Other Side by Stephanie Conn and Jewtown by Simon Lewis, both shortlisted for the 2017 Shine/Strong Award, as well as Amanda Bell’s First the Feathers and Annemarie Ní Churreáin’s Bloodroot, both shortlisted for the 2018 Shine/Strong Award; and Rosemary Jenkinson’s Catholic Boy, shortlisted for the Irish Winner of the EU Prize for Literature.
Doire Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts Council of Ireland which have funded many of our publications. Doire Press is represented by Brookside Publishing Services.
Lisa Frank
Lisa Frank was born in Los Angeles but lived in the Pacific Northwest for many years before moving to Ireland in 2007. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University and worked as a literary editor from 2002 to 2010, as well as having taught English and creative writing to a variety of students, including university undergrads and inmates at a medium security mens’ prison. She is co-director and layout designer for Doire Press and is the editor of Galway Stories, as well as co-editor of Belfast Stories and Galway Stories: 2020. Click here to visit Lisa’s website.
John Walsh
John Walsh was born in Derry. He spent many years living in Germany before moving to Connemara in 1989. He is a poet and fiction writer and has three poetry collections published, including Johnny tell Them (Guildhall Press, 2006), Love’s Enterprise Zone (Doire Press, 2007) and Chopping Wood with T.S. Eliot (Salmon Poetry, 2010), and a short story collection entitled Border Lines (Doire Press, 2012). He has read in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Sweden and the United States. He is co-director and commissioning editor of Doire Press.
