Educators and Students Offered Special Discount for Irish Evening

Award-winning Irish poet, memoirist and novelist Seán Hewitt is the headliner at the 47th annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry, hosted by the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo), on Saturday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m., in the Smith Theatre, Horowitz Center, Howard Community College.

Hewitt will read from his work, including his memoir All Down Darkness Wide, followed by a conversation moderated by Cóilín Parsons, Georgetown University Associate Professor and Director of Global Irish Studies. Music by Poor Man’s Gambit follows intermission, concluding the evening’s program. Ireland’s Deputy Ambassador to the United States, Fionnuala Quinlan, has been invited to provide opening remarks.

Hewitt’s debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, won The Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by The Sunday Times as one of their "30 under 30" artists in Ireland.

His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in non-fiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Polari Prize, the Michel Déon Prize, and for a LAMBDA award. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022.

300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World was published in 2023. A second collection of poetry, Rapture's Road, was published in 2024. His debut novel, Open, Heaven, is forthcoming in Spring 2025.

Seating for Irish Evening is available starting at 7 p.m. Irish beverages will be offered for sale to patrons aged 21 and up at a cash-only bar in the lobby prior to the program and during intermission. Non-alcoholic refreshments and scones will be provided free. A book signing follows the reading and discussion, and books will be available for purchase.

General in-person admission is $50, $30 for educators and students up to the day of the event, online or by calling the Horowitz Center Box Office at 443-518-1500, Wed.–Fri., 12–4 p.m.

HoCoPoLitSo’s annual Evening of Irish Music and Poetry debuted in 1979 and was spearheaded for more than four decades by the late Catherine McLoughlin-Hayes. Current co-chairs are Anne Reis and Edward Young.

About HoCoPoLitSo

HoCoPoLitSo is celebrating its 50th anniversary of presenting nationally and internationally renowned literary artists and emerging writers to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Thousands of people, including five decades of local students, have been enriched through several hundred carefully curated programs made accessible through free or low-cost events in places throughout the county, from traditional venues like Howard Community College to Rotary Club meetings and even an equestrian center where the visiting poet read while on horseback.

During the half century since its founding, HoCoPoLitSo has hosted several dozen Nobel, Pulitzer and National Book Award winners who have applauded the non-profit for widening the understanding and appreciation of contemporary literature through its readings, workshops and writer-in-residency programs, as well as its historic video series, “The Writing Life” interviews with celebrated authors, many of whom are now long gone. For information, see https://hocopolitso.org, contact office@hocopolitso.org or call, 443-518-4568.