Silo City Reading Series: Donika Kelly, Nabila Lovelace, Nicole Chochrek, Charlie Martin

Featured Artists

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  Donika Kelly Poet
  

  Donika Kelly

  Poet

  Donika Kelly is the author of The Renunciations (Graywolf), winner of the Anisfield-Wolf book award in poetry, and Bestiary (Graywolf), the winner of the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Kelly’s poetry has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Publishing Triangle Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and longlisted for the National Book Award. A Cave Canem graduate fellow and member of the collective Poets at the End of the World, she has received an NEA fellowship, a Lannan Residency Fellowship, and a summer workshop fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center. She earned an MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in English from Vanderbilt University. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Donika lives in Iowa City with her wife, the nonfiction writer Melissa Febos, and is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Iowa, where she teaches creative writing.

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  Charlie Martin Singer-Songwriter + Producer
  

  Charlie Martin

  Singer-Songwriter + Producer

  Charlie Martin is a Texan artist and producer. Charlie and collaborator Will Taylor combined likeminded batches of material to form the Austin-based project Hovvdy. Charlie’s debut album, ‘Imaginary People,’ is out from Grand Jury.

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  Nabila Lovelace Poet
  

  Nabila Lovelace

  Poet

  Nabila Lovelace is a first-generation Queens born poet, her people hail from Trinidad & Nigeria. Sons of Achilles, their debut book of poems, is out now through YesYes Books. You can currently find her kicking it in Tuscaloosa.

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  Nicole Chochrek Artist
  

  Nicole Chochrek

  Artist

  Nicole Chochrek holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University at Buffalo (2022) and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of North Texas (2015). As an interdisciplinary artist, she has exhibited nationally and internationally, from Al Shaheed Park in Kuwait (2016) to El Museo Gallery in Buffalo, New York (2022).

  Her work has been supported by artist residencies including Laboratory Art + Residency in Spokane, Washington (2019); the UB Arts Collaboratory Student Residency in Buffalo, New York (2020-2021); the Immersive Art & Technology Initiative at Alfred University (2022); and the Soil Factory Residency at Cornell University (2025).

  Beyond her studio practice, Chochrek has presented research on air quality and the impacts of fire season at the National Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit in Phoenix, Arizona (2019). She has worked with the Coalesce Center for Biological Art (2020-2022) and was awarded grants from Creatives Rebuild New York and NYSCA in partnership with CEPA Gallery (2022-2024). These grants supported the creation of Broken Plastics, an arts and education initiative that launched Microplastic Recycling Art Bins across Erie and Niagara County, New York. Research collected through this project was later presented at the New York State Microplastic Summit at the University at Buffalo (2024).

  Chochrek continues to expand this work in collaboration with the Rozalia Project in Burlington, Vermont (2024-2025), and NATURE Lab in Troy, New York (2025).