New Island invites you to the launch of 'The Skipper & her Mate' by Nicki Griffin

NEW ISLAND invites…  Please join us to celebrate the launch of The Skipper & her Mate Ten Years on Irish Waters By Nicki Griffin at 5.00pm, Saturday 3rd August, at: Waterways Ireland Building The Harbour, Scariff, Co. Clare Guest Speaker: Theo Dorgan

http://www.newisland.ie

Adam White's 'Accurate Measurements', published by Doire Press, shortlisted for Forward Prize for Best First Collection

The shortlist for the £5,000 best first collection prize includes Dan O'Brien's War Reporter, inspired by interviews he conducted with a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist. Also in the running are collections published by two tiny presses – Adam White's Accurate Measurements is published by Doire Press in Connemara, while Steve Ely's collection, Oswald's Book of Hours, is published by Smokestack Press in Middlesborough. They are pitted against three of the biggest publishers in UK poetry: Faber & Faber for Emily Berry's Dear Boy – a wittily disturbing soliloquy; Bloodaxe Books for Hannah Lowe's Chick; and Seren Books for She Inserts the Key, a collection that juxtaposes sparrowhawks and the Bank of England, crafted by former City solicitor Marianne Burton.

The chair of judges, Jeanette Winterson, hailed a "powerful year for poetry".

For more see today’s Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/08/forward-poetry-prize-shortlists-2013

Adam was a Featured Reader at the May 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. Big congratulations to him and to John Walsh and Lisa Frank of Doire Press.

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.

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

SPRING POETRY WORKSHOPS AT GALWAY ARTS CENTRE WITH KEVIN HIGGINS

Starting in May, Galway Arts Centre is offering aspiring poets a choice of three poetry workshops, all facilitated by poet Kevin Higgins, whose best-selling first collection, The Boy With No Face, published by Salmon Poetry, was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish poet. Kevin’s second collection of poems, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in 2008 by Salmon Poetry and his poetry is discussed in The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry. His third collection Frightening New Furniture was published in 2010 by Salmon and his work also appears in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade –New British and Irish Poets (Ed. Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). A collection of Kevin’s essays and book reviews, Mentioning The War, was published in 2012 by Salmon Poetry. His next collection of poetry, The Ghost in The Lobby, will be published in early 2014, also by Salmon.

Kevin is an experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. One of his workshop participants at Galway Arts Centre won the prestigious Hennessy Award for New Irish Poetry, two have won the Cúirt New Writing Prize, one has been awarded an Arts Council Bursary and yet another won the Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam, while several have published collections of their poems. Kevin is also co-organiser of the successful Over The Edge reading series which specialises in promoting new writers.

Each workshop will run for eight weeks, commencing the week of May 13th. They will take place on Tuesday evenings, 7-8.30pm (first class May 14th), Thursday afternoons, 2-4pm (first class May 16th); on Friday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class May 17th).

The Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon workshops are open to both complete beginners as well as those who’ve been writing for some time. The Thursday afternoon workshop is an Advanced Poetry Workshop, suitable for those who’ve participated in poetry workshops before or had poems published in magazines. The cost to participants is €90, with a concession rate.

Places must be paid for in advance. To reserve a place contact reception at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886 or email info@galwayartscentre.ie 

Launch of 'Poems for Patience X' & 'This Never Happened 2' with Matthew Sweeney & Kevin Higgins

Launch of Poems for Patience X

- Selected and Introduced by Matthew Sweeney

&

 This Never Happened 2

– Edited and Introduced by Kevin Higgins

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust invites you to come along to the launch of the tenth series of the very successful Poems for Patience initiative.

Poet Matthew Sweeney will introduce 21 poems he has selected, including works by poets reading at this year’s festival. The poetry is circulated throughout the waiting areas of University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital.

For the duration of the festival, the poems will be on display on the Art Corridor, University Hospital, Galway. This project is organised by Margaret Flannery.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the ‘Poems for Patience’ project, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust launched a poetry competition in 2013. The Trust was delighted with the incredibly high standard and the huge response from poets. The winning entry is called ‘The River’ by Jane Clarke. Jane will be presented with a copy of her poem in a poster format and will read it at the launch on Friday.
____________________________
Creative Writing by patients and staff at University Hospitals Galway will also be launched on the Art Corridor. Writer in Residence Kevin Higgins is the editor of their publication: This Never Happened 2.

Directions: From the main entrance of the University Hospital, go through the foyer and take the second right.

For further information contact Margaret Flannery, Arts Director, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust at 091 544979 or guhartstrust@hse.ie

Doire Press invites you the launch of 'Accurate Measurements' by Adam White

Salmon Poetry Invites You To The Galway Launch of The God Thing by Susan Millar DuMars

Salmon Poetry invites you

to the Galway launch of The God Thing,

the new collection of poetry by Susan Millar DuMars.

The book will be launched by Reverend Canon Maureen Ryan

at Galway City Museum

on Saturday, March 23rd at 2pm.

 Everyone is welcome.

Maureen Ryan has lived most of her adult life in Galway. She has published two novels and over 400 academic papers, essays, sermons, meditations and reflections. She is a psychologist, a Priest in the Church of Ireland and a Canon in the National Cathedral of St. Patrick’s, Dublin.

In The God Thing, Susan Millar DuMars writes with compassion and clarity about the terminal illness and death of a family member, and her own resulting struggle to keep faith and love alive within herself. The poems question and rage, and find unexpected moments of humour and buoyancy. DuMars looks for God in the stories of the Bible’s women; in the transcendent paintings of Matisse and the soulful images of Hopper; in the transience of cities, the memory of mountains, the freedom of water and the spilt sugar stars in the sky. An excavation of grief which unearths, if not the Divine, then hope – as necessary and fragile as our next breath.

For more about The God Thing http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=286&a=39

March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering showcases SKYLIGHT 47 possibly Ireland's most interesting poetry publication

Tony Curtis

Kevin Higgins

The March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering a showcase reading for Skylight 47 probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication with SPECIAL GUESTS TONY CURTIS & (at the invitation of the editors of Skylight 47) KEVIN HIGGINS and many many more. All contributors to the first issue of Skylight 47 are invited to come along and read their poem from the magazine.

The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, March 15th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge. Skylight 47 is generously sponsored by Food 4 Thought & Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop.

Tony Curtis was born in Dublin in 1955, he studied literature at the University of Essex and Trinity College, Dublin. Tony Curtis is an experienced facilitator of poetry and creative writing workshops with both adults and children and is a regular contributor at the Clifden Arts Festival. In 1993, his poem ‘The Dowser and the Child’ won the Poetry Ireland/Friends Provident National Poetry Competition, while ‘These Hills’ won the Book Stop Poetry Prize. He also edited As the Poet Said (1997), a selection of quotations from Dennis O'Driscoll's regular column in Poetry Ireland Review. In 2003 he was awarded the Varuna House Exchange Fellowship to Australia. Tony Curtis is a member of Aosdána and has published numerous collections of poetry, including Folk (Todmorton, Lancs. UK, Arc Publications, UK, 2011); An Elephant Called Rex [Illustrated and designed by Pat Mooney] (Dublin, Black Hills Press, 2011); Sand Works [Photography by Liam Blake] (Real Ireland, 2011); Days Like These [with Theo Dorgan & Paula Meehan] (Brooding Heron Press in Washington State; a fine art edition, editing and design by Sam and Sally Green, 2008); The Well in the Rain (Todmorton, Lancs. UK, Arc Publications, 2006); The Book of Winter Cures (Dublin, Black Hills Press, 2004 [Limited Edition]); What Darkness Covers (Todmorton, Lancs. UK, Arc Publications, 2003); Three Songs of Home (The Dedalus Press, 1998); This Far North (Dublin,The Dedalus Press, 1994); Behind the Green Curtain (Beaver Row Press, 1988) & The Shifting of Stones (Dublin, Beaver Row Press,1986).

Kevin Higgins facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words programme. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2014. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011), Canberra, Australia (2011), Amherst, Massachusetts (2013) & Boston, USA (2013). His most recent publication, Mentioning The War: Essays & Reviews (1999-2011) has been described by Clare Daly T.D. as “a really good and provocative read. It will jolt you; it will certainly touch you; make you laugh; maybe make you snarl a little bit as well, depending on where you come from or what your background is.” This is the first major reading Kevin has given in Galway since 2007.

There is no entrance fee. The Kitchen @ The Museum has a wine licence.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

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