Publications & Projects

‘…A writer of exceptional talent.’ Éilís Ní Dhuibhne

Happiness_comes_COVER

Fire: Brigid and The Sacred Feminine (Arlen House: Dublin, 2024), co-edited with Niamh Boyce, is an anthology of prose, poetry and visual art which explores personal responses to Brigid, The Sacred Feminine and The Heritage of Kildare. Buy from Kennys.

Mantles: Encountering Brigid (Arlen House: Dublin, 2021) re-imagines new representations of Brigid as an archetype of the sacred feminine through engagement with artefacts and site visits, creating a felt and deeply personal narrative in words and images. Buy from Woodbine Books, Maynooth Bookshop

Duality (redfoxpress: Achill, 2019) is a collaboration between Shauna Gilligan and Margo McNulty which explores the Curragh land, memory and artefacts. Fiction and poetry by Shauna Gilligan/visual art by Margo McNulty. Buy direct from redfoxpress.

Happiness Comes from Nowhere (Ward Wood: London, 2012) can be ordered direct from Ward Wood and from larger on-line sites.

Poetry /Anthologies

  • August 2025 Poet of the Month at The Lonely Crowd Press featuring three poems: “Self-Butchery in Two Parts”, “Daughter Frizzante (In Padova)”, “The Rule of Thirds”.
  • Poem “Beverly Allitt’s Push of Dreams” in Washing Windows V (Eds Nuala O’Connor and Alan Hayes, Arlen House: Dublin 2025). Washing Windows V is the biggest anthology of poetry by Irish women ever compiled, with over 300 contemporary women poets, from all over the island and further afield, writing in English and Irish, poems of power, potency and poignancy.
  • Poem “I left my womb in Napoli” in Washing Windows IV (Eds Nuala O’Connor and Alan Hayes, Arlen House: Dublin 2024).

Recent Short Fiction Publications

  • Short Story “Like A Hook” in Crannóg Magazine (Issue 58, Spring 2023)
  • Flash Fiction, ‘Waking the Mermaids’ in Thoughts on Paper Exhibition curated by Chris Nurse and Barrie Llewelyn, Oriel y Bont, (USW, 17 Jan – 25 Feb 2022)
  • Flash Fiction, ‘Mama Daly’ in Imagining History Edited by Barrie Llewelyn (USW, Exhibition Oriel y Bont, Winter 2021)
  • Short Story ‘Tina, Tina, Tina’ Scarlet Leaf Review (Spring 2021)
  • Short Story ‘Sybil’s Dress’ Cabinet of Heed (Issue 19, Spring 2019)
  • Short Story ‘Thirty-Five-A-Night’ Crannóg Magazine (Issue 47, Spring 2018)
  • Flash fiction ‘Rats’ The Lampeter Review (Issue 15, Winter 2017)
  • Flash fiction ‘Confined’ Domineer International Literary Festival (2017)
  • Short story ‘Plum Marker’ Crannóg Magazine (Issue 44, Spring 2017)

Selection of Non-Fiction Writing

  • Shauna Gilligan interviews Maya Sonenberg about Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters in The Compulsive Reader (July 2022)
  • “Duality” – On collaborating with artist Margo McNulty in Visual Artists Ireland The Visual Artists’ News Sheet (VAN), September/October 2020.
  • On being Writer-in-Residence at The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in conjunction with The Irish Writers’ Centre and Dublin City Council Irish Times
  • A reflection on the writing life Because I do on Writing.ie
  • “We’re Not Static”: Shauna Gilligan Interviews Jeannine Ouellette about The Part that Burns in The Heavy Feather Review (Vol 11, February 2021)
  • Shauna Gilligan interviews American Poet Ruth Danon in The Cortland Review (Issue 83, Winter 2019) 
  • “Painting Pictures and Telling Tales: The Scholarly and Popular Portrayal of Patrick Pearse 1916- 1927” in Diarmaid Ferriter and Susannah Riordan (Eds) Years of Turbulence (Dublin, UCD Press, 2015)
  • On Desmond Hogan ‘The Art of Swimming in Winter’ Thresholds, UK
  • On Ireland Unread – Writer Dave Lordan asks about Irish writers unjustly unread