'An incredible honour': Small Cork publisher nominated for prestigious awards 

A small, independent Cork publisher has earned a second consecutive nomination at the British Book Awards, one of the most prestigious events in the UK publishing calendar.

Banshee Press, founded in 2015, has been shortlisted for Small Press of the Year — the only Irish nominee in the category.

“It would just be incredible visibility for us, and an incredible honour,” says Eimear Ryan, managing editor and co-founder, of the prospect of winning the category.

“We’re nominated alongside nine other presses from across the UK. Some of them are a lot bigger than us, even though we’re all technically ‘small press’. It’s a huge recognition.”

Ryan is based in Ballincollig and teaches creative writing in University College Cork.

She says of Banshee Press: “We all work from home — no big headquarters — but Waterstones and other Cork bookshops have been unbelievably ive of us since the beginning. We definitely feel that Cork connection.”

The company began life as a literary journal, publishing short stories, essays, poetry, and flash fiction.

“We wanted to create a literary space for the kind of work we were writing ourselves,” says Ryan.

“At the time, a lot of writing by young women was being put into young adults or women’s commercial fiction.

“We felt there was a need for a young, feminist, literary perspective.”

Their editorial team includes Jessica Traynor (poetry), John Patrick McHugh (fiction), Marie Gethins (flash fiction), and Molly Hennigan (non-fiction).

“They’re all brilliant practitioners in their own fields,” Ryan says. “Having their eyes on the work has been incredible.”

Banshee Press started publishing books in 2019 — initially just one a year. “In 2022, we published two. And now, for the first time ever, we’re doing three,” she says.

“That steady growth is exactly what we hoped for. We want to be a high-quality, safe harbour for our authors.”

Banshee’s breakthrough year came in 2023, when they published Penelope Unbound by Mary Morrissey. “Mary’s such an established name and she’s based in Cork,” Ryan explains. “That novel was a bit of a bestseller for us.

“We got a featured review in The Observer and The Guardian, and John Banville spoke very well of it. That really made people sit up and take notice — especially in the UK.”

This year’s nomination was boosted by the success of the debut poetry collection by Gustav Parker Hibbett, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize — one of the most significant honours in the poetry world.

“They’re an incredible poet,” Ryan says. “It was so exciting to see a debut make that kind of splash.”

As part of their growing success, Ryan is quick to credit the that’s helped Banshee thrive.

“We invest quite a bit in design because we want our books to look as good as anything from the big five publishers,” says Ryan.

“We’re extremely grateful to the Arts Council and Cork City Council. That allows us to pay our contributors decently and to offer proper advances to our authors.”

The path to publication with Banshee is democratic. “We open submissions twice a year — in March and October — and we’ve found nearly all of our authors that way,” Ryan explains.

“Voice is everything. Within a page or two, you know if the writer has that narrative confidence. It’s a hard thing to define, but when it’s there, you feel it straight away.”

Their first author, Lucy Sweeney Byrne, came to them with a short story. “She was in our very first issue,” Ryan recalls. “We just loved her work.

“She published three or four more stories with us and then came to us with a full collection.”

While the literary journal is stocked mainly by independent bookshops, the books themselves are distributed across Ireland and the UK.

“Gill handle distribution in Ireland and Turnaround do the UK,” says Ryan. “That ensures we’re on the shelves of all the good bookshops.”

And where larger publishers might be swayed by trends or marketing potential, Banshee remains focused on finding fresh and underrepresented voices.

“We started out to platform female writers, but now we’re asking: who else isn’t being heard?” she says. “Are we publishing enough writers of colour? LGBTQ writers? Disabled writers? We’re trying to seek those voices out.”

Why does it matter?

“One of the most powerful things about reading is its ability to create empathy,” Ryan says.

“Reading about someone totally different from you can help you see the world through their eyes. And on the flip side, there’s something incredible about recognising yourself on the page — seeing your thoughts or your life reflected. That’s deeply validating.”

Banshee’s impact isn’t just local. Many of their recent authors — including Parker Hibbett — were drawn to Ireland from abroad because of the country’s literary ecosystem.

“Our last three authors weren’t born in Ireland,” says Ryan. “Claire-Lise Kieffer came from to study in Galway, Bebe Ashley from England to Belfast, and Parker Hibbett from New Mexico to Trinity.

“Ireland is seen as a place where you can have a writing career now. The Arts Council the small presses, the creative writing courses — it all adds up.”

To date, Banshee Press authors have been listed for such awards as the Edge Hill Prize, the Kate O’Brien Award, the Butler Literary Award, the John McGahern Annual Book Prize, the Seamus Heaney Poetry Prize, the Polari First Book Prize, the Ivan Juritz Prize, the Laurel Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Prize.

So what’s next for the tiny team behind this quietly ambitious press?

“We’d love to keep growing — slowly and steadily,” Ryan says. “Most of all, we want to keep ing our writers.

“Many of them have published their debut with us, and we’d love to be there for book two, and three, and beyond.”

Having won the ‘Island of Ireland’s’ Small Press of the Year award for the second year in a row, Banshee Press are now competing for the overall prize at the British Book Awards ceremony at Grosvenor House, London, on May 12.

The awards affirm, connect and energise all who have a hand in creating books and all who read them, by showcasing the authors and illustrators “who have stirred our hearts and imaginations, and the industry behind the scenes who have brought them to readers”.

Judged by leading industry experts, authors, journalists and celebrities, it is regarded as ‘the BAFTAs of the book trade’.