Caoilinn Hughes and Cóilín Parsons Headline HoCoPoLitSo’s 48th Annual Irish Evening
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Doors open 7 p.m., stage show commences at 7:30 p.m.
Smith Theatre, Horowitz Center, Howard Community College
HoCoPoLitSo’s 48th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry on Saturday, February 7th, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. presents Sisterhood, Silence, and Survival, featuring Caoilinn Hughes, author of novels, short stories and poetry, reading from her work followed by a conversation moderated by Cóilín Parsons, Georgetown University Associate Professor and Director of Global Irish Studies. The evening also features music performed by Poor Man’s Gambit and Unranked; a representative of the Irish Embassy to the United States has been invited to continue the long-standing tradition of providing opening remarks.
The evening program commences at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 7th, 2026 in the Smith Theatre of the Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center on the campus of Howard Community College; guests may be seated starting at 7 p.m. Responsible patrons aged 21 and up are invited to partake of Irish beverages at our CASH-ONLY bar, at intermission and prior to the stage show while enjoying a performance by Unranked. Non-alcoholic drinks and light fare will be provided free to attendees. A book signing follows the reading and discussion, and books by the featured authors will be available for purchase. After intermission, Poor Man’s Gambit will play a concert of traditional Irish music.
Tickets are available now through the Horowitz Center Box Office— offered at a special discount of $40 if purchased before January 1st! A reduced rate is available for educators and students. We hope you will join us for what is sure to be another unforgettable evening.
In-person event tickets:
https://ci.ovationtix.com/32275/production/1256563
All proceeds from the event support the live and recorded literary programs offered by HoCoPoLitSo for student and general audiences, including production of The Writing Life, a writer-to-writer talk show now seen worldwide by more than one million viewers on youtube.com/hocopolitso.
Caoilinn Hughes’ latest novel is The Alternatives, a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her second novel, The Wild Laughter, won the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award, and her debut Orchid & the Wasp won the Collyer Bristow Prize. Hughes’ poetry collection, Gathering Evidence, won The Irish Times’ Shine/Strong Award and was a finalist for the Seamus Heaney Prize.
Her short stories have won the Irish Book Awards’ Story of the Year, The Moth Story Prize, and an O. Henry Prize. Hughes’ work has also appeared in Tin House, POETRY, Granta, Best British Poetry, Poetry Ireland, BBC Radio 3, and elsewhere. She was recently Oscar Wilde Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and a Cullman Center Fellow at New York Public Library.
Cóilín Parsons is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University, where he is also Director of the Global Irish Studies Initiative, and Sonneborn Chair for Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Indian Ocean Studies. His research interests include Irish literature, global modernisms, space and scale, and postcolonial literature and theory.
Parsons is the editor of Transnationalism in Irish Literature and Culture, published in November 2024 by Cambridge University Press. He is also the author of The Ordnance Survey and Modern Irish Literature (Oxford, 2016) and has edited or co-edited publications including Science, Technology, and Irish Modernism (Syracuse, 2019) and Relocations: Reading Culture in South Africa (Cape Town, 2015).
Poor Man’s Gambit was formed in 2015 and hails from Philadelphia, PA, with a musical repertoire rooted in Irish traditions. The group has released three albums, completed two international tours, and has been noted as an increasingly popular Irish-American group.
Featuring fiddle, button accordion, guitar, bodhran, bouzouki, vocals, and dance, the trio brings together diverse musical backgrounds which complement the others’ musical styles. With two multi-instrumentalists in the line-up, PMG has been noted for their ability to change up within the space of one performance and offer several levels of musical depth to listening ears.
Unranked is a four-piece American roots rock band made up of musical ruffians blending layered guitars, mandolin and violin aiming to please the human soul. Unranked blends a mix of Irish and Americana sound with beautiful harmonies creating a unique brand of music. Core members include Aaron Lubliner-Walters (mandolin/vocals), Skyle Malcom (violin/vocals), Neal Barthleme (electric guitar/vocals), and Will Hill (accoustic guitar/vocals).
About HoCoPoLitSo’s Annual Irish Evening
Howard County Poetry and Literature Society’s annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry features Irish writers and poets, musicians and dancing. This program debuted in 1979 and is chaired by HoCoPoLitSo’s Irish Evening Co-Chairs Anne Reis and Edward Young.
Among the many poets, novelists and memoirists to be featured at past Irish Evenings are such distinguished writers as:
- Frank McCourt
- Seamus Heaney
- Emma Donoghue
- Paula Meehan
- Theo Dorgan
- Colm Tóibín
- Colum McCann
- Claire Keegan
- Anne Enright
- Maureen Dowd
- Seán Hewitt
Each year’s featured artist is invited to participate in HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, a half-hour, writer-to-writer talk show produced with technical support from HCC’s Dragon Media, and provided free, worldwide via HoCoPoLitSo’s YouTube channel, where it has now been seen by more than one million viewers. Recordings of select past in-person events are also available.
HoCoPoLitSo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN 52-1146948) registered in the state of Maryland, donations to which are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. A copy of our current financial statement is available upon request. Documents and information submitted to the State of Maryland under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act are available from the Office of the Secretary of State for the cost of fees and postage.
HoCoPoLitSo is or has in the past fiscal year been supported by funds gratefully received from the Maryland State and Howard County Arts Councils; Howard County Government; Community Foundation of Howard County; Maryland Humanities; Dr. Lillian Bauder; and from other generous individual and corporate contributors. The artistic contents and opinions expressed at HoCoPoLitSo events do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of HoCoPoLitSo’s grantors, donors, or individual Board or staff members.
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