
Read and listen now…
This is a selection of my work which is available online. Full list of credits below!
The Kite Trust interviewed me about poetry, nature, and gender euphoria on their podcast, I’m Socially Distancing with…
Compost Mentis made Speculative Fiction into a film-poem:
I have a story in Easter Road Press‘s Radical Intergenerational Honesty zine. It’s an intergenerational coming out story with a lil sprinkling of queer magic. The zine has comics and poems and essays, and is fierce and good. All proceeds from the zine go to Action for Trans Health Edinburgh.
You can download my zine Daring The City To Fall Into It for free or by donation. It includes two poems and a short story about utopia, and I made it available as a small offering for the strange, historical times of the pandemic.
We Are A Many-Bodied Singing Thing is an anthology of speculative fiction and poetry inspired by endangered species and the people saving them. I edited and produced it as part of my work with Back From The Brink, and it’s free to download. I also created a virtual launch as we had to cancel the in-person one – so you can hear readings by the contributors and find out more about Back from the Brink from the conservationists themselves.
As part of the Back from the Brink residency, I wrote poems that became part of events and installations alongside work from all the participants. I wrapped the residency up by bringing these together in a pamphlet, Hold Fast, which is free to download.
Connecting Words is a fanzine for Bethnal Green, which came out of the Open Gardens Treasure Trail, commissioned by LADA and produced by Earthlings, a collaboration between me and Hari Byles. It includes poetry and stories from the project, as well as reflections on community collaboration and art.
Losslit published Mourning, a sestina about break ups and climate grief.
My short story Daring the city to fall into it was published in the London Reader‘s Summer 2019 issue, After the Flood. Their forward to the story made me feel like I was getting it right: “What would life be like with food and electricity shortages during a difficult transition? It may be daunting, but in the interregnum, there is space for imagination and hope. For [Linden] Katherine McMahon, imagining new communities, like in their short story “Daring the City to Fall into It,” helps us see the possibilities for creating something better.”
Little Red Tarot published A recipe for elderberry and apple jelly as part of their Coven Verse series. The poem also appears in my show, Fat Kid Running, and is a sort of spell for feeling brave and capable in your body.
I wrote Speculative Fiction, a tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin when she passed away in January 2018. It was published in Shoreline of Infinity‘s International Women’s Day issue, which was dedicated to Le Guin.
Gutter published my love poem from heart to belly (which I blogged about here) in Gutter 14. They also included an online playlist to go with the issue, so you can hear the poem as well as read it:
I created an album with sound designer Fiona Keenan, which went with my first pamphlet, Treasure in the History of Things – the pamphlet included a CD and was published by Stewed Rhubarb in 2012
I worked with Ben Tyson and the Edinburgh Composers’ Orchestra to perform two poems with an orchestral score, especially written for the words:
Gold, along with an interview, was featured on the Indiefeed Performance Poetry channel. I would definitely recommend exploring the archives over there – there is an amazing variety of poetry, along with a huge number of interesting and inspiring interviews.

Publications
We Are A Many-Bodied Singing Thing (editor), Back from the Brink, 2020
Hold Fast (pamphlet), Back From the Brink, 2020
Treasure In The History of Things (pamphlet and album), Stewed Rhubarb Press, 2012
One poem in Climbing Lightly Through Forests, Aqueduct Press, 2021
One poem for A Recipe of Me (commission), Ministry of Stories, 2020
Short story in Radical Intergenerational Honesty, Easter Road Press, 2020.
One poem in A Queer Anthology of Wilderness, Pilot Press, 2020
One poem in LossLit, 2019
Short story in The London Reader, 2019
One poem in Finished Creatures 1, 2019
One poem on Little Red Tarot, 2018
One poem in Shoreline of Infinity, 2018
One poem in Return Flight (commission), 2017
One poem as part of Poetry Treat (commission), 2016
One poem in Gutter 14, 2016
Three poems in Out There, ed. Zoe Strachan, Freight Books, 2014
Three poems in Flicker and Spark, ed. Regie Cabico and Brittany Fonte, Lowbrow Press, 2013
One poem in The List, ed. Kirsty Logan, 2013
One poem on Indiefeed, ed. Wess Mongo Jolley, 2013
One poem in Poems for Freedom, Freedom Press, 2013
Zines
You can buy these here!
Compost Mentis – a quarantine zine about soil care, with Compost Mentis
No Guilt in Pleasure – a zine about resisting capitalism by having a nice time
Lughnasadh – a single poem zine about grief, resilience, and seeds
Alter treego – a single poem zine about what I would be like if I was a tree
Pride – a single poem zine about queer family
Daring the city to fall into it – two poems and a short story about utopia
Earthlings – a fanzine for soil, with Hari Byles and others
Fat Kid Manifesto – a single poem zine about fat liberation
Speculative FIction – a single poem zine about imagining a better world
Collaborative anthologies
(You can find out more about these here.)
Connecting Words – a fanzine for Bethnal Green, with Hari Byles and others
Your Rabbit is Menacing the Neighbourhood (editor), Meet Me At The Albany
Stories of Changing Lives Three (editor), Royal Edinburgh Hospital Patients Council, 2017
The Gender Garden (editor), LGBT Health and Wellbeing, 2016
Naked Among Thistles (editor), Elephant Juice, 2014
Academic articles
McMahon, K (2019), Writing the Cards. Story Makers Dialogues [1], Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University.
McMahon, K (2019), Land as teacher: how connection with land, nature, and place can support creative writing pedagogy. Writing in Education [78], National Association of Writers in Education.

Performances
I toured my full-length spoken word show, Fat Kid Running, in 2017-18:
EDINBURGH: 12th May 2017, Scottish Storytelling Centre, as part of Flint & Pitch Presents…
GLASGOW: 9th June 2017, Glad Cafe, as part of the Workers Theatre Weekender.
EDINBURGH: 13th June 2017, The Bakers Arms, as part of the LEAP Sports Festival Fortnight.
INVERNESS: 15th June 2017, Eden Court, as part of the LEAP Sports Festival Fortnight.
EDINBURGH: 28th July 2017, The Melting Pot, with LGBT Health and Wellbeing.
LONDON: 15th March 2018,, Camden People’s Theatre, as part of the Sprint Festival
LONDON: 4th June 2018, Camden People’s Theatre, as part of Itch Collective’s Skinned:Live Festival
I have performed across the UK – highlights from my feature performances include:
- Jazz Verse Jukebox, January 2019
- Come We Grow, December 2018
- Book launch for The Games, Harry Josephine Giles (Outspoken Press) – support, Sept 2018
- Below Stairs, May 2018
- Wilderness: New Queer Writing, May 2018
- Scarborough Poetry Workshop, March 2018
- Genderfuck Ball, Goldsmiths, Feb 2018
- Queer Theory, Dec 2017
- Other Voices, PBH Free Fringe, Aug 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017
- Stanza International Poetry Festival, March 2016 & 2017
- AntiSlam, Rally and Broad, Dec 2015
- Loud Poets, Dec 2015
- Forget What You Heard (About Spoken Word), Nov 2015
- Tricolour (National Library of Scotland), Sept 2015
- Eden Festival, July 2015
- Rally and Broad, Feb 2015
- East Kilbride Arts Centre, Feb 2015
- Project Naked, Jan 2015
- Edinburgh University Composers’ Orchestra (poetry soloist), Nov 2014
- Cummnock Music Festival, June 2014
- ACT! Festival for Social Change, Mar 2014
- TenRed, several dates 2012-2014
- Traverse Sessions, Oct 2013
- Dive, several dates 2013-2014
- Nozstock Festival (Herefordshire), July 2013
- Incite (London), June 2013
- Fail Better, May 2013
- Summerhall Festival Club, Aug 2012
- Leith Late, June 2012