In 2016, she co-wrote a play with fellow poet Sabrina Mahfouz, Offside, relating the history of British women in football.

She went on to take a part-time master's degree in international development and economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

In 2016 BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour broadcast a seven-part radio short documentary series hosted by McNish entitled Becoming a Mother: A Hot Cup of Tea with Hollie McNish[17] which explored motherhood from many angles, including poverty, linguistic barriers, mothering as migrants and teenage parenting.

[2][18][19] In 2020, during the Coronavirus lockdown, McNish began her regular online event, Poems in Pyjamas, streaming every Sunday night on her Instagram and Facebook channels.

[24] In the same year, actress/influencer Emma Watson named McNish, alongside other poets Rupi Kaur and Sabrina Mahfouz, as having reignited her love for poetry.

[25] Commentary on her work has included: "But even by the standards of the defiantly lawless world of performance poetry, McNish, the English-raised daughter of Scottish parents, must seem – to some, at least – like a bewildering law unto herself."