Hollie McNish
Hollie McNish is an English poet and author who splits her time between Cambridge and Glasgow. Born in Reading in 1983 to Scottish parents, she has published several poetry books and a memoir, as well as music and theatre projects.
Her poetry collections include Papers (2012), Cherry Pie (2015), Why I Ride (2015) and Plum (2017). She wrote Nobody Told Me (2016), a poetic memoir about motherhood and politics, which won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and has been translated into German, French and Spanish.
Her later books include Slug, and other things I’ve been told to hate (2021) with Hachette and Lobster (2024 hardback; 2025 paperback with Fleet / Little Brown).
McNish co-wrote the play Offside (2016) with Sabrina Mahfouz about the history of British women in football; it was published as a book in 2017. She also released an album of poetry and music, Versus (2014), the first poetry album recorded at Abbey Road Studios. A second album, Poetry vs Orchestra (2016), featured music by Jules Buckley and the Metropole Orchestra and was performed live at Cadogan Hall.
Her work has often supported campaigns, including The Economist Education Foundation, Durex’s orgasm equality project, and The Eve Appeal. She studied Modern and Medieval Languages at King’s College, Cambridge, including a year teaching in Guadeloupe, where she learned Guadeloupian Creole. She later earned a part-time master’s in international development and economics at SOAS, University of London.
Before becoming a full-time writer in 2014, she worked in various jobs. Her first live reading was at Poetry Unplugged in Covent Garden, and she now performs worldwide, often with Vanessa Kisuule and Michael Pedersen. In 2014 she began using the stage name Hollie Poetry after online abuse, releasing Versus under that name; she returned to using her surname in 2017.
BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour featured a series hosted by her in 2016, Becoming a Mother: A Hot Cup of Tea with Hollie McNish. She was Artist in Residence at Storyhouse in 2018 and won the Farrago Poetry Slam Championship in 2019. She runs online poetry events, including Poems in Pyjamas during the 2020 lockdown, and has built a large online following. She is a patron of Baby Milk Action.
Her work has sparked debate among critics, but she is widely recognized for her outspoken, accessible approach to poetry and motherhood. Emma Watson named her, along with other poets, as someone who reignited her love for poetry.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:19 (CET).