Even in her own understanding of her progress as a poet, McGuckian inhabits a threshold postion.

When asked in an interview with Kathleen McCracken, "How do you see your growth as a poet?", McGuckian responded:

"Do I see it? I feel very much a child there, though a mature woman physically. I feel positively embryonic, and yet what I'm writing now does seem at once more innocent and more experienced than it was. I see my growth as intersecting my physical prime or decline. I do feel less alone than I did. I just write about the unbearable heaviness of being at the minute at least.