September Over The Edge: Open Reading Caitriona O’Reilly, Colin Dardis, James Anthony & Skylight 47 launch

Caitríona Ó'Reilly

The September ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 29th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Caitriona O’Reilly, Colin Dardis, & James Anthony. The centre piece of the evening will be the launch of issue seven of Skylight 47, the exciting bi-annual poetry paper from the Skylight Poets, which will be on sale on the evening. The publication will be launched by Caitriona O’Reilly. Skylight 47 is based in Galway and publishes poems by poets from all around the globe; all poets are welcome to submit poems for consideration for future issues. For details on how to take out a subscription to Skylight 47 see https://skylight47poetry.wordpress.com/buy-skylight-47/. The evening will also see the announcement of the shortlist for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition, judged by fiction writer and poet Niamh Boyce. 

James Anthony is a native of Athlone. He has worked in catering for most of his life and has always enjoyed writing in his spare time. In January 2015, he took the train to Galway to attend Kevin Higgins's creative writing class at G.T.I. and has been a regular participant in Kevin’s poetry workshops ever since. This year he has published work in Skylight47, the Athlone Advertiser and a poetry anthology, Open Your Eyes edited by Kevin Watts.

Colin Dardis is a poet, editor, freelance arts facilitator, creative writing tutor and mental health advocate, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His work has been published widely throughout Ireland, the UK and USA. He is one of Eyewear Publishing’s Best New British and Irish Poets 2016, and is currently an ACES (Artists Career Enhancement Scheme) 2015-16 recipient from Arts Council Northern Ireland. Colin is also online editor for Lagan Press.

Catríona O'Reilly was born Dublin in 1973, grew up in Wicklow and Dublin, and now lives in Lincoln. She studied archaeology and English at Trinity College Dublin, where she wrote a doctoral thesis on American literature; she has also held the Harper-Wood Studentship from St John's College, Cambridge. Her first collection The Nowhere Birds was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2001, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2002 (given to the best new book by any Irish writer). Her second collection, The Sea Cabinet (Bloodaxe Books, 2006), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award in 2007. Her third collection, Geis (Bloodaxe Books, UK; Wake Forest University Press, USA, 2015), won the Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2016 and was also a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is a freelance writer and critic, has written for BBC Radio 4, translated from the Galician of María do Cebreiro, and published some fiction. She has collaborated with artist Isabel Nolan, edited several issues of Poetry Ireland Review, and was a contributing editor of the Irish poetry journal Metre.

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, Poetry Ireland, & The Arts Council.

June Over The Edge Writers' Gathering presents Louis de Paor, Eamonn Wall, Anne Tannam, Brian Kirk, Alan McMonagle, Carlos Reyes in SKYLIGHT 47 SPECIAL

June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

presents readings by

Louis de Paor, Eamonn Wall,

Anne Tannam, Brian Kirk,

Alan McMonagle,  Carlos Reyes

in a special

SHOWCASE READING

for contributors to

Skylight 47

probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication 
THURSDAY, JUNE 25th, 6.30-8PM 

The June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents a special showcase reading by contributors to Skylight 47, probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication. Those reading their poetry on the evening will be Carlos Reyes, Alan McMonagle, Brian Kirk, Anne Tannam, Eamonn Wall, & Louis de Paor, The event will take place at Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, June 25th, 6.30-8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge. 

Louis de Paor

Louis de Paor is one of Ireland's leading Irish-language poets, and was a key figure in the Irish language poetry renaissance of the 1980s and 90s. He has worked closely on English translations of his poetry, with his co-translators fully engaging with the original poem in Irish. Louis is director of the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway. His most recent publication The Brindled Cat and the Nightingale’s Tongue – an Irish-English bilingual edition of his poems in the original Irish and in translation – was co-published by Bloodaxe and Cló Iar-Chonnachta. Louis is interviewed, by Deirdre Kearney, in the current issue of Skylight 47.

Eamonn Wall

A native of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Eamonn Wall lives in Missouri, where he is Smurfit-Stone Corporation Professor of Irish Studies/Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and Traditions which was published by University of Notre Dame Press in 2011. His most recent publication Junction City: New & Selected Poems was published earlier this year by Salmon Poetry. Kevin Higgins’s Galway Advertiser review of that book can be read here http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/77676/poet-leaves-enniscorthy-to-drive-around-america . Eamonn was a contributor to issue no. 3 of Skylight 47.

Anne Tannam’s has poems published, or forthcoming, in Poetry Ireland Review, The Moth, The Poetry Bus, Prairie Schooner, Literature Today, and several anthologies. Take This Life, her first book of poems, was published by 6^th House in 2011. She has performed her work at the Electric Picnic, Cúirt, and other festivals and is co-founder of the Dublin Writers’ Forum. Anne is a contributor to the current issue of Skylight 47.

Brian Kirk is an award winning poet and short-story writer from Clondalkin, Dublin. He was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series in 2013, and highly commended in the 2014 Patrick Kavanagh Award. His poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. He is a members of the Hibernian Poetry Workshop. Brian is a contributor to the current issue of Skylight 47.

Alan McMonagle lives in Galway. His poems have appeared in The Shop, The Moth, The Stony Thursday Book, and Crannóg. He has published two collections of short stories Liar Liar (Wordsonthestreet, 2009) & Psychotic Episodes (Arlen House, 2013). Last year, his radio play, Oscar Night, was produced and broadcast as part of RTE’s Drama on One series. Alan has contributed poems to previous issues of Skylight 47; his review of Alan Jude Moore’s poetry collection Zinger is in the current issue.

Carlos Reyes is a noted Portland poet and translator, world traveller and story teller.  His latest books of poetry are Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart  and The Book of Shadows: New and Selected Poems.  He is currently travelling in Ireland to promote his first book of prose, The Keys To The Cottage, Stories from the West of Ireland, which tells the story of his life in Co. Clare over the last 40 years. Carlos has had fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission, Yaddo (New York), Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), Heinrich Boll Association (Ireland), Island Institute (Sitka, Alaska), as well as been poet-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park, Acadia National Park, and Devil's Tower National Monument. He was a contributor to issue no. 3 of Skylight 47. 

There is no entrance fee. 

For further information contact 087-6431748.

 Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support 

of the Arts Council, Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.