Teangacha Trilsithe – Braided Languages – Langues Tressées

TEANGACHA TRILSITHE / BRAIDED LANGUAGES / LANGUES TRESSÉES

A trilingual poetry reading (English, Irish, and French) of the work of three poets / translators, Kelly Norah Drukker (a poet and scholar from Montréal, Canada and also visiting scholar in the Centre for Irish Studies, University of Galway); Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha (poet and PhD scholar from Roinn na Gaeilge and the Centre for Irish Studies); and Gabrielle Machnik-Kekesi (scholar from Montréal, Canada, completing a PhD at the Centre for Irish Studies).

The event will consist of a trilingual reading of both Kelly and Laoighseach’s work, with Kelly’s work (English, and translated into French by Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné) translated into Irish and read aloud by Laoighseach, and Laoighseach’s work (Irish, and self-translated into English) translated into French by Canadian scholar, Gabrielle Machnik-Kekesi, and read aloud at the event by Kelly. 

Kelly is an accomplished poet, with her debut collection, Small Fires (McGill-Queen’s University Press) winning the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry, and the Concordia University First Book Prize. The collection was also a finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal (2016). Petits feux, a French-language translation by Lori Saint-Martin and Paul Gagné, was published by Le lézard amoureux in 2018. 

Laoighseach has been published in a variety of literary journals, including Poetry Ireland Review and Comhar. She recently won first place in the Fiach Dubh poetry competition and in the Ballybunion Arts Festival Irish Language poetry competition. Her first collection, Solas Geimhridh, is forthcoming.

Gabrielle has a BA (History) and MA (Individualized Program, Modern Irish History and Gender Studies) from Concordia University and a MISt (Archival Studies) from McGill University. She is a Hardiman Research Scholar at the University of Galway (2021-2025), completing a PhD at the Centre for Irish Studies.

We wish to use this event to show how poetry and literature can cross boundaries, languages, and cultural contexts, as well as highlighting the important role of collaboration and camaraderie in the writing and translation of literature.

The event is free, and all are welcome – from within the university and without!