June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering: Deirdre Hines, Anton McCabe, Lori Desrosiers & Jennifer Wong PLUS 'This Never Happened'

June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

presents readings by

Deirdre Hines, Anton McCabe,

Lori Desrosiers & Jennifer Wong

PLUS

A SHOWCASE READING

from This Never Happened II

Poems and Stories by participants in creative writing workshops at University Hospital Galway & Unit 5 of Merlin Park University Hospital (Edited by Kevin Higgins)
  Galway City Library, 

St. August Street, Galway 
Thursday, June 27th, 6.30-8pm.

The June  Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Deirdre Hines, Anton McCabe, Lori Desrosiers, Jennifer Wong and a Showcase Reading from This Never Happened II, a collection of poems and stories from writing workshops at Galway University Hospitals published earlier this year by Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust and launched at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature. The event will take place at Galway City Library, St. August Street, Galway on Thursday, June 27th, 6.30-8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

The contributors to This Never Happened II are Niamh Ní Ghlaisne, Maeve Tonge,  Dr Oscar De Souza, Louis Hanly, Madeline Moloney, Brendan Duffy,  Fiona Falvey, Flish McCarthy,  Bridie Travers & Elizabeth Neville  

Deirdre Hines was born in Liverpool. She moved to Belfast shortly thereafter, and from there to Letterkenny in Co. Donegal, where she now lives. She has written several plays, of which “Howling Moons, Silent Sons” won the Stewart Parker Award fro Best New Play in 1992. Pigsback Theatre Company produced it. She went on to write “Ghost Acreage at Vixen Tine” for Passion Machine’s Songs of the Reaper Festival in 1994.Other plays include “A Moving Destiny”(1996) produced by Yew Theatre Company and “Dreamframe” produced for Fishamble’s “Y2K” Festival. She was short listed for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2010, and won the Listowel Poetry Collection in 2011. Her poetry collection The Language of Coats is recently published by New Island Press.

Anton McCabe is from Omagh, Co Tyrone. He is a freelance journalist who has contributed to a wide variety of print and broadcast outlets, in both English and Irish. He has written extensively on the history of the trade union movement in the north-west of Ireland, and has contributed to a number of books and journals on the subject. He is a member of the Irish Executive Committee of the National Union of Journalists. His non-fiction book The House that Disappeared on Tory Island was published last year by Drumkeen Press. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/book-tells-of-tory-island-disappeared-house-1.557667
 

Lori Desrosiers lives in Massachusetts, USA. He full-length poetry collection, The Philosopher’s Daughter, was published earlier this year by Salmon Poetry.  Her chapbook, "Three Vanities," a chronicle of three generations of women in her family, was published by Pudding House Press in 2009. In 2010, her poem “That Pomegranate Shine” won the Greater Brockton Society for Poetry and the Arts Award for New England Poets. She is the publisher and managing editor of Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrative poetry. She earned her M.F.A. in Poetry from New England College and teaches English at Westfield State College.

Currently based in London, Jennifer Wong is a Hong Kong-born poet and translator.  Her poems have appeared widely in poetry journals and anthologies, including the Oxfam anthology of Young British Poets by Todd Swift and Kim Lockwood (Cinnamon Press 2012), World Record: An Anthology edited by Neil Astley and Anna Selby (Bloodaxe Books 2012), Prairie Schooner online edition edited by Agnes Lam and Kwame Dawes (summer 2013) and Asian Poetry in English edited by Agnes Lam (Math Paper Press 2013). Jennifer studied English at Oxford and received an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She was the writer-in-residence at Lingnan University in 2012, and has worked for Magma Poetry. She has participated in Poetry Parnassus London and the Hong Kong Literary Festival 2012. Goldfish, her second poetry collection, is just published by Chameleon Press. 
 

There is no entrance fee.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support

of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year to be judged by Sarah Clancy OPEN TO WRITERS WORLDWIDE

competition judge Sarah Clancy

major sponsor Charlie Byrne's Bookshop

2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition

Major Sponsor: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,

other sponsors to date:

ISupply, Quay Street
Ward's Hotel, Lower Salthill

Kenny’s Bookshop

& Derek Nolan T.D

In 2013 Over The Edge is continuing its exciting annual creative writing competition. Since its inception in 2007, it has grown to become one of the most important competition’s for emerging writers in Ireland and internationally. The competition is open to both poets and fiction writers worldwide. The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the overall winner total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2013. The 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at Ireland’s leading literary reading series, the Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library, on a date to be scheduled in Winter 2013/14. Salmon Poetry will read, without commitment to publish, a manuscript submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category. Doire Press will read, without commitment to publish, a manuscript of short stories submitted to them by the winner in the fiction category. In two new additions to the prize this year the overall winner will receive a hamper of books from the famous Kenny’s Bookshop of Galway and the winner in the poetry category will have one of the poems from her or his winning entry published in the January 2014 issue of Skylight 47 magazine.

 Entries should be sent to Over The Edge, New Writer of The Year competition, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway with an accompanying SAE. Entries will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on your poem(s) or story. Put your contact details on a separate sheet.

Criteria: fiction of up to three thousand words, three poems of up to forty lines, or one poem of up to one hundred lines. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must be accompanied by a fee. The fee for one entry is €10. The fee for multiple entries is €7.50 per entry e.g. two entries will cost €15, three entries €22.50 and so on. Fee payable by cheque or money order to Over The Edge. To take part you must be at least sixteen years old by September 1st 2013 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in the genre in which you enter. Chapbooks excepted. Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition. The competition is open to writers worldwide. We accept payment in Dollars, Sterling, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars and so on. Writers from outside the Euro area can calculate the payment for their entry here http://www.xe.com/ucc/

The closing date is Wednesday, August 7th, 2013. A long-list will be announced at the August Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 29th, 2013 (6.30-8pm). THE LONGLIST WILL BE AVAILABLE, BEFORE THAT, AT CHARLIE BYRNE’S BOOKSHOP FROM 5PM ON THURSDAY AUGUST 29TH. The shortlist will be announced at a special Over The Edge Culture Night event at Kenny’s Bookshop & Gallery, Liosbán Retail Park, Tuam Road, Galway on Friday, September 20th, 7pm. The winners will be announced at the October Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 31st 2013 (6.30-8pm).

This year’s competition judge is Sarah Clancy. Sarah Clancy has been shortlisted for several poetry prizes including the Listowel Collection of Poetry Competition and the Patrick Kavanagh Award. Her first book of poetry, Stacey and the Mechanical Bull, was published by Lapwing Press Belfast in December 2010 and a further selection of her work was published in June 2011 by Doire Press. Her poems have been published in Revival Poetry Journal, The Stony Thursday Book, The Poetry Bus, Irish Left Review and in translation in Cuadrivio Magazine (Mexico). She was the runner up in the North Beach Nights Grand Slam Series 2010 and was the winner of the Cúirt International Festival of Literature Grand Slam 2011. She has read her work widely at events such as Cúirt and as a featured reader at the Over the Edge reading series in Galway, the Temple House Festival, Testify, Electric Picnic, O Bheal and at the Irish Writers’ Centre, she was an invited guest at the 2011 Vilenica Festival of Literature in Slovenia and in Spring 2012 her poem "I Crept Out" received second prize in the Ballymaloe International Poetry Competition. Her second poetry Thanks For Nothing, Hippies was published by Salmon Poetry last year and has been a poetry best seller.

For further details contact Over The Edge on 087-6431748,
e-mail over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com  

SKYLIGHT 47 - possibly Ireland's most interesting poetry publication

SKYLIGHT 47

The new bi-annual poetry paper from Skylight Poets

was launched

at the 10th Anniversary Over the Edge Reading

in Galway City Library onThursday 24th January, 2013

Featuring POETRY INTERVIEW

with Harry Clifton, Ireland Professor of Poetry

POETRY MASTERCLASS with Paul Maddern

OPINION by Kevin Higgins

REVIEWS of Afric McGlinchey, Jessie Lendennie & Moya Cannon

Subscriptions now available: Winter issue €4.50

Annual Subscripton (two issues, incl postage Ireland) €9.99

Annual Subscripton (two issues, incl postage abroad) €10.99 (or equivalent in whatever your currency is)

See currency converter here http://www.xe.com/ucc/

NOW AVAILABLE: here on overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie & at Over the Edge Events Cheques or postal orders payable to Over The Edge. Send payment with subscription details to Over The Edge, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway. For further details: skylightpoets47@gmail.com  

Buy Skylight 47

Current Issue - Outside Ireland €6.00 EUR Current Issue - Within Ireland €5.55 EUR Annual Subscription - Outside Ireland €10.99 EUR Annual Subscription - Within Ireland €9.99 EUR

Susan Millar DuMars on the first ten years of Over The Edge

Quote from Susan Millar DuMars' essay about the first ten years of Over The Edge:

 "Our audiences were recently taken to task in a national newspaper for being gauche enough to clap after every poem. Such unbridled enthusiasm makes some people nervous. These people should feel free to stay at home. O[ver]T[he]E[dge] is not for them."  

  

You can read Susan's essay in full in the just  published special Irish issue 

of the Portland, Oregon based online literary magazine Penduline, 

guest edited by Dave Lordan.
http://www.pendulinepress.com/contributors/susan-millar-dumars-kevin-higgins

THURSDAY Susan Millar DuMars launches 'The God Thing' in Dublin

Salmon Poetry invites you to the Dublin launch of poetry collections by Susan Millar DuMars, co-organiser of Over The Edge, Richard Halperin, Noel King & John W. Sexton. This Thursday, June 6th, 6.30pm @ The Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

You can buy a copy of The God Thing here   

http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=286&a=39  

For details of all Salmon publications here  
http://www.salmonpoetry.com/  

Thomas McCarthy, Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin & 2012 New Writer of The Year Seán Kenny for May Over The Edge: Open Reading

 

Thomas McCarthy 

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 30^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Thomas McCarthy, Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin & Seán Kenny. Sean was the over-all winner of the 2012 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition and this reading is part of his prize. This is the final Over The Edge: Open Reading before the summer break.

Seán Kenny’s fiction has appeared in Crannóg, The Irish Times, New Irish Writing in The Irish Independent, Southword and Wordlegs. He won the 2012 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition and was shortlisted for a 2013 Hennessy Literary Award.

Eileen Ní Shuilleabháin grew up in the parish of Carna in the Connemara Gaeltacht. She lives and works in Galway city as a social worker and psychotherapist. She has been attending poetry workshops with Kevin Higgins this last two years. Eileen contributed towards a group poetry anthology Wayword Tuesdays in 2012. Her work has also been published by Emerge Literary Journal, The Burning Bush, Aperçus Quarterly, Boyne Berries, The Galway Review and Scissors & Spackle.

Thomas McCarthy was born in Co. Waterford in 1954 and educated at University College, Cork. He has published eight collections of poetry, two novels and a memoir. He has won the Patrick Kavanagh Award, the American-Irish Foundation’s Literary Award, and the O’Shaughnessy Prize for Poetry. He has worked for Cork City Libraries since 1987. He is a member of Aosdána. In a review Pat Cotter has said of him: “McCarthy is a poet primarily concerned with politics and family. His work's importance lies in its unremitting and detailed examination of the Republic's failures and successes as an independent state. Described by Eavan Boland as the first poet born into the Republic to write about it critically, McCarthy has done so from the perspective of a family dedicated and loyal to the state's most successful and powerful political party: Fianna Fail. But his poems are not eulogies to the party or apologies for its policies; they are more like an exploration of the party as an object of loyalty and devotion (like a lover objectified) with all the potential such an object has for empowerment and betrayal.”

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council.

Dead Good Poetry Competition WINNERS

The winners (first, second and third places) in Galway Rape Crisis Centre's DEAD GOOD POETRY COMPETITION (judged by Clare Daly T.D. & Kevin Higgins of Over The Edge) will be announced at the May Over The Edge: Open Reading at Galway City Library this coming Thursday, May 30th (6.30-8pm). http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2013/05/thomas-mccarthy-eileen-ni-shuilleabhain.html 

May Over The Edge Writers' Gathering: Jean Folan, Dave Lordan, Fiona Smith, Kevin Doyle & Jo Hemmant

May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

presents

readings by Fiona Smith & Kevin Doyle,

the LAUNCH of

Jean Folan’s debut poetry collection Between Time

plus The Galway Launches

of The Light Knows Tricks by Jo Hemmant

& The First Book Of Frags by Dave Lordan

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Fiona Smith and Kevin Doyle and the Galway launch of Between Time by Jean Folan, The Light Knows Tricks by Jo Hemmant & The First Book of Frags by Dave Lordan. The The event will take place at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Middle Street, Galway on Friday, May 17th, 6.30pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Fiona Smith is a freelance journalist and translator. She has published a wide range of journalistic work in both Irish and international publications. She currently writes on Irish topics for the German Press Agency dpa and translates from Scandinavian languages into English. She has published poetry in Southword and in the Hennessy New Irish Writing page in the Irish Independent. She won the poetry section of the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition in 2012 with the poem 'At Letterfrack'. She is currently working on a first collection.

Kevin Doyle is from Cork. His short stories have been published in Cork Literary Review, Stinging Fly, Southwords, Burning Bush, Cúirt Journal, Duality, Liblit and Sunday Tribune. His work has also been included in anthologies such as Irish Writers Against War (Dublin, 2003), Pulse Fiction (London, 1998) and Snapshots (London, 1999) as well as Cork millennium collection, An Gob Saor. He has been shortlisted for many prizes (including Over The Edge, 2010) and has won top placings in the Ian St James Short Story Award, Kilkenny Prize, Tipperary Short Story Weekend Prize and the Highlands and Islands Short Story Award. His work was described by the late Patrick Galvin as ‘terse and original’. He blogs regularly at on Irish and radical politics from an anarchist perspective (http://kfdoyle.wordpress.com).

Jean Folan was born in Galway in 1951. She lives in Inishcrone, Co Sligo and is enrolled on the MA in Writing in NUI Galway. Between Time is her first collection of poems and is published by Lapwing. Jean Folan was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2007, and the Over the Edge Showcase 2008, and was a featured reader at Over the Edge 2007. She was the winner of the Impromptu Haiku, Culture Night 2010, Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo and runner-up at Culture Night 2012, Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway.

Jo Hemmant was born in Manchester in 1967, and this was to be the first of many places she has lived, including Sicily, Holland and Hong Kong. She has always worked with words—after brief stints teaching English as a foreign language and writing PR puffs, she moved into journalism and editing. This experience in publishing prompted her to set up Pindrop, a boutique poetry press, in 2010, which has published twelve titles to date. She now lives in the Kent countryside with her husband and two sons and is involved in local poetry, acting as Secretary of The Kent and Sussex Poetry Society and running creative writing workshops. Her poems have been published in various magazines and anthologies, such as Magma, Iota, Dream Catcher, Jericho (Cinnamon Press, 2012) and nothing left to burn (Ragged Raven Press, 2011) and she has won prizes in several competitions, including first prize in The New Writer Poetry and Prose Competition 2011(collection category), second prize in the Torriano Poetry Competition in 2011 and runner-up in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2012. Her poetry collection, The Light Knows Tricks, is just published by Doire Press.

Dave Lordan is the first writer to win Ireland’s three national prizes for young poets. He is the current holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award and previous winner of both the Patrick Kavanagh and Strong Awards for poetry. He has won wide acclaim for his writing and is a renowned performer of his own work, with the Irish Times calling him ‘as brilliant on the page as he is in performance’. He has read his work by invitation at festivals and venues across Europe and North America. His collections are The Boy in The Ring (2007) & Invitation to a Sacrifice (2010), both published by Salmon Poetry. His poems are regularly broadcast on Irish national radio and he reviews for the flagship Arts show Arena, as well as many publications including Ireland’s leading literary magazine, The Stinging Fly, of which he was a guest editor for summer 2012. He teaches contemporary critical theory and poetic practice on the MA in poetry studies in Dublin City University and he teaches creative writing at primary, secondary, third, and adult education levels. Dave’s debut collection of short stories First Books of Frags is just published by Wurm Press.

There is no entrance fee.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of

the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading: Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Eimear Ryan PLUS Hugo Kelly Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize Winner

Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading:Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe, Eimear Ryan PLUS Hugo Kelly Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize Winner



Dearbhaile Houston

Damian Cunniffe

Eimear Ryan

Caolinn Hughes

Hugo Kelly 

  

2013 Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading

Thursday, April 25th, 4:30pm

Town Hall Theatre

All welcome

There is no cover charge

The 2013 Cúirt Over The Edge showcase reading takes place as part of this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Thursday, April 25th, 4:30pm. The writers showcased this year are Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Eimear Ryan. The reading will be introduced by regular Over The Edge host, Susan Millar DuMars.

This event has grown since its inception in 2006 to become one of Ireland's premier platforms for showcasing new poets and fiction writers. Participating writers have previously been Featured Readers at Ireland's most successful reading series, the Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library. Hugo Kelly, the winner in the fiction section of the Cúirt New Writing Prize will read with the Over The Edge writers. We also congratulate Caoilinn Hughes, the winner in the poetry section, who is now living in New Zealand and will be unable to make it to read at Cúirt. The Cúirt New Writing Prize is kindly sponsored by Tigh Neactain in memory of Lena Maguire. http://www.cuirt.ie/Site-Content/cuirt-new-writing-prize-submissions-2013.html

Dearbhaile Houston grew up in Co. Galway. She is in her second year of New Media and English at the University of Limerick, learning the art of procrastination and strong coffee. She began attending Creative Writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars in Spring 2011 and won the Seán Uí Riordáin prize for poetry in the Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary Competition 2011. Dearbhaile was a Featured Reader at the January 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2011/12/over-edge-celebrates-ninth-birthday.html

Damian Cunniffe is from Abbeyknockmoy in North County Galway. In 2011 he was longlisted for the Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize, the Ink Tears Prize and was joint winner of the Lonely Voices Short Story Introductions competition run by the Irish Writers Centre. He was runner-up in the fiction section of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year competition. His work has been published in Crannóg and the Cúirt Journal. He is currently working on a play and a collection of short stories. Damian was a Featured Reader at the January 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2011/12/over-edge-celebrates-ninth-birthday.html

Eimear Ryan’s fiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, New Irish Writing, Necessary Fiction and Horizon Review. She was the winner of the Sean Dunne Young Writers' Award 2011 and the Hennessy Award for First Fiction 2009. She is currently studying creative writing at Trinity College and is writing a novel. Eimear was the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and was a Featured Reader at the May 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2012/05/new-writer-of-year-eimear-ryan-for-may.html
 

Caoilinn Hughes is a Galway-born poet and novelist, currently completing a Ph.D. in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Ireland, the U.K. and New Zealand, including: Poetry Ireland, PN Review, The Irish Times, Southword, The Yellow Nib, New Zealand Books, NZ Listener, Landfall, The Cuirt Annual and elsewhere. Her first collection of poetry, Gathering Evidence, won the 2012 Patrick Kavanagh Award and will be published by Carcanet Press in 2014. Caolinn was a Featured Reader at the first ever Open Reading in Galway City Library in January 2003.

Hugo Kelly has won many writing awards for his short fiction including the Brian Moore Short Story Competition and the Start Chapbook Award amongst others. He has twice being shortlisted for the Hennessy Award in Emerging Fiction and the Fish International Short Story Competition. His work has appeared in various publications including the Sunday Tribune, Verbal Magazine, the Stinging Fly and the Cúirt Annual. BBC Radio 4 and RTE Radio 1 have broadcast his short stories and in 2007 he was shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Award. He also writes for younger readers and won the inaugural Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Award in the UK. Hugo works as a librarian in NUI Galway. He was a Featured Reader at the September 2005 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

 
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing support of Galway City Library, Galway City Council, The Arts Council and The Cúírt Festival of International Literature.

http://www.cuirt.ie/ga/event/140-cuirt-over-the-edge-showcase.html  

DAYTIME CREATIVE WRITING AT GALWAY ARTS CENTRE WITH SUSAN MILLAR DUMARS STARTING IN MAY

In May, Galway Arts Centre presents a daytime class for all those beginner and continuing creative writing students out there, facilitated by Susan Millar DuMars. Susan Millar DuMars writes both poetry and fiction. A collection of her stories, Lights In The Distance, was published in December 2010 by Doire Press; she has published three collections of poetry, Big Pink Umbrella (2008), Dreams For Breakfast and, most recently, The God Thing (March 2013), all with Salmon Poetry. She is also co-organiser of the Over The Edge reading series which specifically promotes new writers.

The class is suitable for both beginning and continuing creative writing students, working in either poetry or fiction. Students will spend their week responding to writing exercises designed to inspire, rather than inhibit. In class, they will receive gentle feedback on their work from their classmates and from the teacher. The class takes place on Monday afternoons, 2-3.30pm, commencing on Monday, May 13th and runs for eight weeks.

The cost to participants is 90 Euro with a concession price. Booking is essential as places are limited. For booking please contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886 or email info@galwayartscentre.ie