Femina Cupla: Poetry Reading

Join NI poetry collective Femina Cupla to explore women's agency through history through their research and work.
About this Event

Femina Cupla Poetry Collective formed in 2024. Since then we have performed in a range of venues and festivals, including the National Poetry Library, Linen Hall Library, Greystones Festival, Poetry Society Cafe, Public Records Office of NI, and the Seamus Heaney HomePlace.

Kelly Creighton's recent pamphlet, Unbecoming, is about the true crime case of the Staten Island witch, Polly Bodine in the 1840s.

Linda McKenna’s second collection, Four Thousand Keys, (Doire Press, 2024), is inspired by the case of Elizabeth Dunham who was tried in the Old Bailey for the theft of thousands of keys to a range of public buildings around London, including the Bank of England, and the Tower of London, and imprisoned first in Newgate before being sent to Bedlam. She is currently working on a new collection based on research into the women involved with the 1798 Rebellion.

Emma McKervey’s latest collection, God-Head-Contraption, (Turas Press, 2026) looks at her maternal grandfather's family who worked for the Whitechapel Bell Foundry for 250 years, and explores how the lives of working class people influence society and culture. Her collection Highland Boundary Fault, (Turas Press, 2024), looks at an old family story of her great grandparents, whose court case and Great Grandmother's petitioning of the newspapers which changed the postal service on the Isle of Lewis. Her first collection examines women through a mythic lens.

We use the themes of our books –research, archival materials, and the working class voice and portrayal to explore women's agency through history. The format of our readings is generally planned as a fifteen minute reading each, and then a panel style discussion of the work, how we researched and put our collections together. The event will last around an hour.

About the writers:

Kelly Creighton is an award-winning writer who has published 6 novels, and a short story collection. Unbecoming is her second poetry pamphlet. She received her MA in Poetry Studies from the Seamus Heaney Centre, QUB last year.

Emma McKervey studied at Dartington College of Arts. Her award-winning work is widely published across both islands, and she has worked for over two decades as an arts facilitator. Her debut collection was published by Doire Press. She recently completed a MRes in the Seamus Heaney Centre, and has taken part in the Faclan and Wigtown literature festivals.

Linda McKenna is originally from Dublin but has lived in Downpatrick for many years. now living in the North. She has worked as a Heritage Officer in Downpatrick for many years, She won the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing in 2018 and the title poem of her first collection, In the Museum of Misremembered Things, won the An Post/Irish Book Awards Poem of the Year in 2020. She has worked in heritage and museums for almost 30 years.