International Women’s Day 2026: Femina Culpa Poetry Collective
Celebrate International Women's Day 2026 with and exciting new poetry collection by Emma McKervey, Milena Williamson, Linda McKenna and Kelly Creighton.
Femina Culpa is a poetry collective bringing together 4 poets based in County Down and Belfast, Emma McKervey, Milena Williamson, Linda McKenna and Kelly Creighton. Their most recent poetry collections have all been inspired by the stories of nineteenth century women who were caught up in the criminal justice system or who were victims of crime. Their work has been based on archival research and seeks to uncover the voices of these women through poetry.
Emma McKervey’s Highland Boundary Fault, includes poems based on a Scottish court case in her family history.
Milena Williamson’s Into The Night That Flies So Fast, deals with the case of Bridget Cleary murdered by her family who claimed she was a fairy changeling.
Linda McKenna’s Four Thousand Keys, includes poems inspired by the story of Elizabeth Dunham who was charged with the theft of the keys of the Bank of England.
Kelly Creighton’s Unbecoming, is based on the case of Polly Bodine, the ‘Staten Island Witch’.
Doors 2:30pm, Starts 3pm
Tickets: £10
Linda McKenna’s second collection, Four Thousand Keys, was published by Doire Pressin 2024. Her debut poetry collection, In the Museum of Misremembered Things, was published by Doire Press in 2020. The title poem won the An Post/Irish Book Awards Poem of the Year in 2020. In 2018 she won the Seamus Heaney Award for Poetry and the Red Line Festival Award. From North County Dublin, she lives in Downpatrick, Co Down.
Milena Williamson has a PhD in poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s
University Belfast. A recipient of the Eric Gregory Award, she is the author of the
pamphlet Charm for Catching a Train (Green Bottle Press) and the book Into the Night that Flies So Fast (Dedalus Press, 2024).
Emma McKervey is an award winning poet, originally from Holywood, Co. Down. Her work is widely published across both islands, and she has taken part in literature festivals from Wigtown, Scotland, to O’Bheal, Cork. She has been a recipient of both the Tyrone Guthrie and Heinrich Boll residencies, and has received funding from both the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and from Culture Ireland. Emma recently completed an MRes with the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queens University, Belfast. Highland Boundary Fault, published by Turas Press in 2024 is her second collection.
Kelly Creighton is an award-winning writer who has published six 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 in 2024.
