About Channel Press
Our Story
Channel Press is a new home for Irish and international writing that explores human relationships with the more-than-human world.
Our press began its life as a literary journal, Channel, dedicated to writing on nature, place and environmental issues. Founded by Cassia Gaden Gilmartin and Elizabeth Murtough amid the global climate strikes of 2019, it sought to build creative community among writers, artists and readers around shared ecological concern. This community has grown over the journal’s years in business, with publishing in the Irish language becoming a regular part of our practice in 2023 and our first chapbook by a single author, Annette Skade’s Holdfast, published under the Channel name in 2024.
In 2026, Channel Press incorporated as a CLG with Gaden Gilmartin as Publisher/CEO, governed by a volunteer board of directors. As a nonprofit, we reinvest all monies earned in our mission to grow a literary culture that brings human beings into healthier relation with the world around us. Our focus as a publisher remains unchanged: we seek to publish the best new writing grounded in ecological entanglement, now as standalone books in addition to two issues of Channel each year. We also offer a rolling programme of writing courses and development opportunities designed to enrich the practice of eco-writing by bringing writers into contact with one another.
We take our name, Channel Press, from the multiple meanings of the word ‘channel’ – whether referring to a body of water, a band of electromagnetic frequencies or the act of channelling a spirit, it always points to a conduit that creates the possibility of connection. Channel Press exists to nurture writing that acts in the same way – words that draw human beings and the living world closer together.
Our Creative Team
Cassia Gaden Gilmartin
PUBLISHER/CEOAs Publisher, Cassia is Channel Press’ lead editor and is responsible for managing our operations as well as setting our strategic direction in collaboration with the board. She is a 2019 graduate of the MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity College, Dublin, and her work as a writer has been published by Banshee, Catatonic Daughters, Transnational Queer Underground and Eunoia Review. She also works as Production Manager at New Island Books and programmes events and supports for Ireland’s publishing community as a director of Publishing Ireland.
Simon Ó Faoláin
EAGARTHÓIR GAEILGE/IRISH LANGUAGE EDITORIs file agus aistritheoir Gaeilge Simon Ó Faoláin. Bíonn tionchar láidir ag cúrsaí dúlra agus a chúlra sa tseandálaíocht ar a shaothar. Tá ceithre chnuasach filíochta foilsithe aige go dtí seo, ina measc a chéad cheann Anam Mhadra, a bhuaigh Duais Glen Dimplex agus Duais Strong araon nuair a foilsíodh é in 2008, agus a chnuasach is déanaí Iasachtaigh (2022). Tá trí leabhar aistriúcháin foilsithe aige leis, an ceann is déanaí Meidéa le Eoiripidéas, leagan Gaeilge den tragóid chlúiteach Ghréigeach. Tá go leor coimisiún agus sparánacht bronnta air ag leithéidí Roinn Ghnóthaí Eachtracha na hÉireann, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann agus An Chomhairle Ealaíon. Tá sé ina eagarthóir Gaeilge ar an iris liteartha Gaeilge Aneas agus Eagarthóir Gaeilge do Channel.
Simon Ó Faoláin is a poet and literary translator in Irish. His work is heavily influenced by ecology and his background in archaeology. He has published four collections of poetry to date, including his debut Anam Mhadra, which won both the Glen Dimplex Prize and the Strong Prize on publication in 2008, and his latest collection Iasachtaigh, released in 2022. He has also published three books of literary translation, the most recent Meidéa le Eoiripidéas, a version of the classic Greek tragedy. He has received commissions and bursaries from various bodies including the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Irish Academy and the Irish Arts Council. He is editor of the Irish-language literary journal Aneas and Irish Language Editor of Channel.
Kerri Sonnenberg
2026 publishing internKerri Sonnenberg is author of The Mudra. Recent work appears in the journals Banshee, Anthropocene and Ambient Receiver: Journal of Creative Ecologies. She lives in Cork where she works with Nature Network Ireland and The KinShip Project, a long-term socially-engaged art project based in Cork’s Tramore Valley Park, a remediated landfill.
Our Board of Directors
Channel Press’ volunteer board of directors are responsible for maintaining good governance and ensuring all our resources are directed towards the aims enshrined in our constitution. Coming from a range of artistic backgrounds, they also contribute actively to the creative life of our press.
S. R. Westvik
Company secretary & DirectorS.R. Westvik (Sarah) is a writer, musician, actor and historian, born and raised in Singapore and now based in Dublin. Before joining the Channel Press board of directors, they served as Channel’s intern in 2023. S.R. holds a dual MA in International War Studies from University College Dublin and Universität Potsdam. Their work as a historian and writer centres heavily around combat trauma and intergenerational civilian trauma, particularly in the context of the Second World War. S.R. is active across multiple performing arts disciplines – in Dublin, they can be seen acting with the Stage and Screen Society, while in Singapore they have been active as a soloist and chorister for over twenty years under the mentorship of Khor Ai Ming. S.R. has also spent many years as a volunteer, notably as a former trustee of the Tolkien Society.
Aisling Coveney McKeown
DIRECTORAisling Coveney McKeown is a writer, editor and artist from Galway. In 2023 she was accepted onto the SYP Into Mentorship Scheme, and has since worked in a variety of editorial roles. She was a panellist on the Meet the Publishers segment of the 2023 Dublin Book Festival and presented at an SYP webinar on the Irish-language publishing ecosystem in Ireland, representing Channel. She currently works with Publishing Ireland and maintains several freelance editorial positions. Her writing is shaped by ecogothicism and ecosurrealism, as well as a keen interest in the diverse cultural traditions that exist in the Atlantic Archipelago.
Emily Iseult Duggan
DIRECTOREmily Iseult Duggan is a writer, artist and facilitator based in Donegal. Her practice explores storytelling, place, and community, with a particular focus on voice, participation, and socially engaged art. She works across writing, visual art and facilitation, creating collaborative projects that support creativity, confidence and self-expression.
In 2024 she won the Cúirt International Festival of Literature New Writing Prize for Fiction, and she has received an Arts Council Agility Award as well as bursaries from Donegal County Council. Her work has been published in The Pig’s Back, An Capall Dorcha, and Sans. Press.
Alongside her artistic practice, she works as a facilitator with young people and communities, including through Fighting Words and local arts initiatives. She is co-founder of Rivermouth Collective, an artist-led space in Ballyshannon supporting studios, events, and community arts activity.’