Four writers inspired by stories of women in crime to give readings at Maghera and Moneymore

‘Femina Culpa’ is the title Kelly Creighton, Linda McKenna, Milena Williamson, and Emma McKervey are giving to the event in Maghera Heritage and Cultural Centre on Wednesday (November 7) and in The National Trust’s Springhill House on November 20, both at 7pm. Maghera is free, but Springhill will cost £5 entry.

They have all recently published collections based on 19th century court cases against working class women.

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

Emma McKervey’s latest collection, Highland Boundary Fault, (Turas Press, 2024), looks at an old family story of her great grandparents, whose love letters between Greenock and the Outer Hebrides were intercepted by a jealous village girl and resulted in a Sheriff’s Court Case in the 1890s.

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, and imprisoned first in Newgate before being sent to Bedlam.

Milena Williamson's debut collection (Dedalus Press, 2024), Into the Night that Flies so Fast, investigates the life and death of Bridget Cleary in 1895, who was burned to death by her family on suspicion of being a fairy changeling.

The writers will use the themes of their books – historical research, archival materials, and the female working class voice and portrayal in the 19th century, especially their representation through the Press. The format of their readings is generally planned as a 15 minute reading each, and then a panel style discussion of the work, how they researched and put their collections together. The event is expected to last around an hour.

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 last year.

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 nearly 30 years.

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.

Milena Williamson is from Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and has lived in Belfast since 2017. She has a PhD from the Seamus Heaney Centre in Queens, Belfast and is a recipient of an Eric Gregory Award. She was the 2023 Ciaran Carson Writing and City Fellow at Queens University, Belfast, and has received awards from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Ireland Chair of Poetry Trust.