Chris Murray is a Dublin-based poet. She founded and continues to edit the Poethead website. She curates the Fired! Irish Women Poets archive at RASCAL (Queen’s University, Belfast). She is a member of the Irish Women Writing (1880-1920) Network and of Fired! Irish Women Poets and the Canon. In November 2021 Chris was appointed to the literary peer panel of the Irish Arts Council.
Books
Chris Murray’s latest book Her Red Songs was published on 21/02/2024 by Turas Press, Dublin.
A collection of interrelated poems in series and sequence Cycles was published by Lapwing Press (2013). A book-length poem The Blind was published by Oneiros Books (2013). Her second book-length poem She published by Oneiros Books (2014). And Agamemnon Dead; an alternative collection of Irish poetry edited by Peter O’Neill and Walter Ruhlmann (2015). “A Modern Encounter with ‘Foebus abierat’, on Eavan Boland’s “Phoebus Was Gone, all Gone, His Journey Over” for Eavan Boland: Inside History, published by Arlen House. Editors, Nessa O’Mahony and Siobhán Campbell (2016). bind was published in October 2018 (Turas Press). Gold Friend was published in September 2020 by Turas Press. Her Red Songs was published in February 2024 by Turas Press, Dublin.
Publication notes
Publication Notes Online URL, https://textworksite.com/journals-bibliography-publication-notes/
Turas Press Online URL, https://turaspress.ie/shop/third-turas-press-poetry-collection-from-irish-poet-chris-murray/
Individual and small group poems
"Enmesh" first published Washing Windows V, Women Revolutionise Irish Poetry 1975-2025. Editors, Nuala O' Connor and Alan Hayes.
Online URL: https://booksupstairs.ie/product/washing-windows-v/
“Aftermath” published The Honest Ulsterman
Online URL: https://humag.co/poetry/aftermath
Found Poem, Spring, published The Honest Ulsterman, September 2024
“tree is real silver” published Poetry Ireland Review (N°138), Ed. Nessa O’Mahony, December 2022.
Poetry Ireland Review (N°138) An Eavan Boland Special Issue, Ed. Nessa O’Mahony.
PIR Online URL: https://www.poetryireland.ie/publications/poetry-ireland-review/current-issue/
“fragments 1 & 2” published Belfield Literary Review (N°2), Eds. Paul Perry and Niamh Campbell, April 2022.
BLR fragments 1 & 2 purchase link: https://bit.ly/3wxFL2F
“winter street” published One Jacar Press, Issue 20.
Jacar Press Online URL: http://one.jacarpress.com/issue-20/#C
leaf // settles published UCD Pandemic Archive, Lockdown Poetry.
Pandemic Archive UCD Online URL: https://libguides.ucd.ie/lockdownpoetry
“Hook” poems published Indelible Literary Journal (AUD), EIC, Roula-Maria Dib.
Indelible Online URL: https://indeliblelit.com/2022/03/03/hook-and-other-poems-by-chris-murray/
Indelible PDF Download: https://adobe.ly/3KlF6qS
‘Nocturne for Voices One and Two’ performed by Una Lee for How The World Begins Again – Irish Women in Sound and Music: Episode 2, with Elizabeth Hilliard.
Lyric FM Online URL: https://www.rte.ie/radio/lyricfm/clips/22023563/?fbclid=IwAR0i7g9zoKo5gpl6AeLF9DadZ-6aWd7XG8kFQLUVzNY8QoCO0xRqJ-l3Uuo
Nocturne for Voices One and Two © Chris Murray 2020, 2021
Una Lee Bandcamp Online URL: https://unalee.bandcamp.com/track/nocturne-for-voices-one-and-two-chris-murray
Elizabeth Hilliard’s website
‘lily crowded window’ published FormaFluens Journal, April 2021, Editor, Tiziana Colusso.
Formafluens Journal Online URL: https://www.formafluens.net/
Formafluens Journal Downloadable PDF: https://www.formafluens.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/formafluens-magazine-n.1_2021.pdf
‘Seed’ published Timber Literary Journal, September 2021.
Seed Online URL: https://timberjournal.org/archive/seed
morning star published Irish Times Poetry, October 2021, Editor, Gerard Smyth.
Poetry Irish Times Online URL: https://bit.ly/3Akxlg8
The Rosemary, Poetry File – RTÉ (Podcast).
Online URL: https://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_evelyngrantdrive.xml
small mirror published The Honest Ulsterman.
Online URL: https://humag.co/poetry/small-mirror
hook, and: sequins, and: spool, and: red on gold, the new dress © Chris Murray 2016, 2021 – First published The Blind (Oneiros Books, 2016). Republished indelible literary Journal, EIC, Roula-Maria Dib.
Indelible PDF Download: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:dd17e7fe-b082-365a-b523-0f4657803ac4#pageNum=1
Indelible Online URL: https://bit.ly/3AQQDeA
chris murray at Recours au Poème.
Recours au Poème Online URL: https://www.recoursaupoeme.fr/christine-murray/
starlings publ. Gold Friend (Turas Press, 2020).
Online URL: https://ia800106.us.archive.org/29/items/C.Murraystarlings/C.Murray%20%27starlings%27.pdf
Chapbook Publications
Three Red Things, published Smithereens Press, 2013.
Online URL: https://ia800205.us.archive.org/17/items/ThreeRedThingsByChristineMurrayLibre/Three_Red_Things_by_Christine_Murray-libre.pdf [PDF]
Signature, published Bone Orchard Press, 2014.
Online URL: https://archive.org/details/signature-.docx-3_202112
A Hierarchy of Halls, published Smithereens Press, 2018.
Online URL: https://archive.org/details/sp23ahierarchyofhalls [PDF]
Anthologies
Her poetry has been collected in And Agamemnon Dead; an alternative collection of Irish poetry edited by Peter O’Neill and Walter Ruhlmann (2015). Tiny Moments; An Anthology (2016) Edited by David Pring-Mill. Blackjack; A Contemporary Volume of Irish Poetry (2016) published by Singur Publishing, Romania. A Transitory House; a suite of poems (2016) first performed at Ó Bheal (Co. Cork, Ireland) andbased on Freda Laughton’s Now I am a Tower of Darkness published by Limerick Writer’s Centre in 1916 – 2016: An Anthology of Reactions (Eds John Liddy & Dominic Taylor) All The Worlds Between, Anthology, Eds Srilata Krishnan and Fióna Bolger (Yoda Publishing, 2017), The Gladstone Readings Anthology, Ed. Peter O’Neill (Famous Seamus Publishing, 2017). Empty House Anthology Eds Nessa O’Mahony and Alice Kinsella (Doire Press, 2021). Washing Windows V, Women Revolutionise Irish Poetry 1975-2025. Editors, Nuala O’ Connor and Alan Hayes. (Arlen House, 2025)
Journal Publications
Her individual, series, small group poems and a review have been published in The Southword Literary Journal, Crannóg Magazine, Skylight 47, Bone Orchard Poetry, One (Jacar Press), The Burning Bush II, Poetry Bus Magazine, Post II (Mater Dei Institute) (Ireland). A New Ulster Magazine and The Honest Ulsterman (Northern Ireland). York Literary Review (U.K). Caper Literary Journal, Compose Journal and Ditch Poetry (US). Her translated work appears in Levure Littéraire Magazine (Germany & International), Recours au Poème Magazine (France), Şiirden Magazine (“Of Art”, Turkey), Revisita Itaka (Romania), and Indelible Literary Journal (Dubai, UAE). American women’s magazines When Women Waken Journal and WomenArts Quarterly Journal have published small series and single poems from her published
Note: I would like to thank Sahar Halaimzai for including my poem, which can be read here or with all the other poems on the PEN International Poetry Memorial wall dedicated to Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Online URL: https://www.pen-international.org/news/daphne-caruana-galizia-poetry-memorial
About URL: https://poethead.wordpress.com/2019/10/16/a-poetry-memorial-for-daphne-caruana-galizia-pen/
Gold Friend Reviews
New poetry books: Hello to GC Waldrep, farewell to Derek Mahon Plus: There is something of Emily Dickinson in the poems of Chris Murray. Sean Hewitt, Irish Times.
Irish Times Review Gold Friend, Online URL: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/new-poetry-books-hello-to-gc-waldrep-farewell-to-derek-mahon-1.4473082
Gold Friend (published Turas Press) was recommended in “Best Poetry Books of 2021: A Subversion of Wordsworth to a Pandemic Personified” by Martina Evans & Sean Hewitt (Irish Times).
Irish Times Best Books, Online URL:https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/best-poetry-books-of-2021-a-subversion-of-wordsworth-to-a-pandemic-personified-1.4724878
Gold Friend by Chris Murray, sometimes the title is the last piece of the jigsaw(Irish Times).
Gold Friend Essay Online URL: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/gold-friend-by-chris-murray-the-title-is-often-the-last-piece-of-the-jigsaw-1.4355540
Gold Friend, Published Turas Tress, 2020. EIC, Elizabeth McSkeane.
Internet Archive
Three Red Things ,Electronic Chapbook, Smithereens Press 2013.
Three Red Things Online URL: https://archive.org/details/ThreeRedThingsByChristineMurrayLibre
Three Red Things PDF: https://bit.ly/3KrIxw5
A Hierarchy of Halls, Electronic Chapbook, Smithereens Press 2018.
A Hierarchy of Halls Online URL: https://archive.org/details/sp23ahierarchyofhalls
A Hierarchy of Halls PDF: https://bit.ly/3RdDamv
Internet Archive Online URL: https://archive.org/details/@christine-elizabeth
Essays
Gold Friend by Chris Murray: the title is often the last piece of the jigsaw [Irish Times]
I am a poet without a landscape, a woman poet without a narrative heritage [Irish Times]
Launching “Gold Friend” [Youtube]
Elegy and Displacement in Goldfriend [Writing.ie]
Thriving Outside of the Narrative, an essay on poetic practice [Live Encounters]
Three Red Things (download) (2013) [Smithereens Press]
Signature [Bone Orchard Press] [Archived]
A Hierarchy of Halls (2018) [Smithereens Press]
Welcome The Goldfinch For Aslı Erdoğan [Chapbook]
Tackling the catastrophic canonical neglect of Irish women poets and writers [Irish Times]
Doris Lessing’s Little Known Poetry – Women Writers, Women’s Books [Women Writers, Women’s Books]
A Modern Encounter with “Foebus abierat”; On Eavan Boland’s “Phoebus Was Gone, all Gone, His Journey Over” [Eavan Boland: Inside History]
Older Publications
three short poems published Galway Review, 2013.
Online URL: https://thegalwayreview.com/2013/03/06/christine-murray-three-short-poems/
And her yellow music caught in the throat of birds published The Burning Bush Revival Meeting.
Online URL: https://poethead.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/the-burning-bush-revival-meeting-is-online/
Online link to the poem: https://poethead.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/and-her-yellow-music-caught-in-the-throat-of-birds-by-c-murray/
precarious migratory spectacular published The Galway Review.
Online URL: https://poethead.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/precarious-migratory-spectacular-by-c-murray/
Poems from The Blind published Ditch Poetry
Online URL: https://www.ditchpoetry.com/christinemurray.htm
A Selection From My Publications
‘small mirror‘ at The Honest Ulsterman
‘narcissus’ and ‘stalk the open ring’ at Compose Journal (Spring 2017)
A series from The Blind at Ditch Poetry
From Cycles at Recours au Poème
Three Red Things at Smithereens Press
Glendalough; at Iseult Gonne’s Grave at Levure littéraire
Sans at The Southword Journal
Chris Murray 