TKL Reading Schedules
FELISPEAKS
Flowers Hall 230
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, 3:30pm
FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish Poet, Performer, Playwright from County Longford, currently based in Dublin City. FELISPEAKS was nominated ‘Best Performer’ by Dublin Fringe Festival (September 2018) and went on to win ‘Best Performer’ in 2022. A member of the Poetry Ireland Board of Directors appointed (June 2020), and a member of the Poetry Collective, WeAreGriot. FELISPEAKS is an Artist-in-Residence with Axis Ballymun and Visual Carlow, and an Associate Artist with THISISPOPBABY. FELISPEAKS’ poem: ‘For Our Mothers’ is in the English Ordinary Level Leaving Certificate Curriculum (2023 and 2025), as is their poem “Rainbow Blood” (2025). In 2020, FELISPEAKS commissioned a new piece for RTÉ’s The Big Picture on the theme of ‘the New Normal,’ this poem, entitled Still captured the minds of the nation and has been performed to audiences all over the country. Of late, FELISPEAKS has been commissioned by the Irish Repertory Theatre and Fishamble: The New Play Company for the Transatlantic Commission for Black Irish Artists. FELISPEAKS ended 2021 as an Irish Tatler Woman of the Year with a win in the Catalyst Category - which recognises a woman who has affected change in Irish society in a pivotal way. FELISPEAKS is also an ambassador for Laya Health Care’s Beats TV and Media Campaign.
Nithy Kasa
Flowers Hall 230
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, 3:30pm
Nithy Kasa is a Congolese-Irish poet whose work is featured on the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation website, the University of Galway’s archive, the Special Collections of University College Dublin, Poetry Ireland Review and others. She is among the ten poets selected for Poetry as Commemoration for the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 programme by UCD supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. She's the recipient of I bhFad i gCéin international residencies for Cave Canem by Poetry Ireland, The Arts Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs. She received the Poetry Ireland Commission 2020 and was shortlisted for The Eavan Boland Emerging Poet Award 2021. Her debut collection of poetry, Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho, Doire Press 2022, was selected by the Art Council of Ireland for the ‘read mór’ for Culture Night Ireland 2022, was listed among the top poetry books of 2022 by the Irish Times, and was shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize 2023. Nithy is also a facilitator registered with the Irish Writers Centre.
Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin
The Wittliff Collections
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, 3:30 pm
Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin shared an Emmy nomination with several producers for “Outstanding Drama Series” for Chicago Hope and in 2003 they won a Writers Guild of America award for the pilot episode of The Education of Max Bickford. They are known for The Killing and Hit and Run on Netflix; HBO’s Carnivale; The Riches on FX; Showtime’s Brotherhood, as well as Judging Amy, Battlestar Galactica, FlashForward, and Z: The Beginning of Everything, among others.
Saúl Hernández
The Wittliff Collections
Wednesday, Feb. 26th, 2025, 3:30 pm
Saúl Hernández’s first book, How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters, was a finalist for The Wisconsin Poetry Series. He is the winner of both the 2022 Pleiades Prufer Poetry Prize and the 2021 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. His poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net and is forthcoming or featured in Split This Rock, Quarterly West, PANK Magazine, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and elsewhere.