Eamonn Wall launches Second Issue of Skylight 47-probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication

July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

presents The Launch

by Eamonn Wall,

Smurfit-Stone Professor of Irish Studies 

at the University of Missouri-St. Louis,

of the second issue of Skylight 47

probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication

The July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering will see the launch of the second issue of Skylight 47, probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication, with SPECIAL GUESTS EAMONN WALL & PATRICK KEHOE. All contributors to this issue of Skylight 47 are invited to come along and read their poem from the magazine. Eamonn Wall will officially launch the new issue and read some of his own poems. There will is also be a reading by poet Patrick Kehoe. 

The event will take place at Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street on Thursday, July 11^th, 6.30-8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge. Skylight 47 is generously sponsored by Food 4 Thought. Copies of the magazine will be on sale on the evening and can also be purchased here http://www.overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2012/11/skylight-47-possibly-irelands-most.html. Skylight 47 is edited by Nicki Griffin, Kevin 0’Shea & Susan Lindsay, participants in the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre. 

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. His poetry has been included in anthologies in Ireland and the United States including The Book of Irish-American Poetry from the 18th Century to the Present & Irish Writing in the Twentieth Century: a Reader. Eamonn’s essays, articles, and reviews in The Irish Times, New Hibernia Review, The Washington Post & Chicago Tribune. Through his involvement in the Launchpad and Scallta Media initiatives, which he helped set up to encourage the development of young writers and artists in Co. Wexford, he has continued to play a role in the artistic life of Co. Wexford. Sailing Lake Mareotis, Eamonn’s fifth collection of poems, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2011. He is also the author of Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and Traditions which was published by University of Notre Dame Press in 2011. Eamonn’s New and Selected Poems will be published by Salmon next year.

Patrick Kehoe's first poems were published by the late James Liddy in broadsheets and issues of The Gorey Detail. Early poems of his were also published in the Irish Press. In recent times his work has appeared in The Irish Times, Enniscorthy Echo, Natural Bridge, Cyphers and The Scaldy Detail. His debut collection, Its Words You Want was published by Salmon Poetry in July 2011. Paddy will read from his debut collection on the evening. http://www.salmonpoetry.com/bookshop-search.php

Paddy Kehoe

There is no entrance fee.

For further information 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support

of Galway City Council & The Arts Council.

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.