Cúirt New Writing Prize DEADLINE JANUARY 30th

 

Deborah Watkins, Karl Parkinson, June Caldwell & Eileen Sheehan for Final Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2013 PLUS End of year celebration afterwards

The December ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, December 19^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Eileen Sheehan, June Caldwell, Karl Parkinson & Deborah Watkins. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome. The Over The Edge Christmas celebration will take place afterwards. 

Deborah Watkins is a newcomer to the Galway writing scene although she has worked in the visual arts for over twenty years. Deborah began writing a blog about her painting work in 2012 (www.deborahwatkinspaintings.com) and was a finalist in the 2012 Irish Blog Awards. She joined a creative writing class in early 2013 and currently attends a poetry workshop in Galway, facilitated by poet and essayist Kevin Higgins. Her poem ‘Missing’ has recently been accepted for publication by the Galway poetry newspaper Skylight 47.

Karl Parkinson’s debut collection of poetry Litany of The City and Other Poems was published in 2013 by Wurmpress. His work has been published in The New planet Cabaret Anthology of new Irish writing, The Stinging Fly, Penduline, The Poetry Bus, Revival and more. His work has also been broadcast on RTE’s Arena Arts show a number of Times. He is an acclaimed performer of his work and has Performed by invitation and Events and festivals in Ireland, England, Scotland, the USA and Canada .He is one half of the spoken word duo Droppin The Act(with Dave Lordan).  He won a Balcony TV award for one of his video poems. He is the spoken word editor of Colony.ie.  

June Caldwell worked for 13 years as a freelance journalist for the UK & Irish press. She has been shortlisted for the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition. In 2010 she received an Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) bursary for fiction. Her work has been showcased at the Italo-Irish Literature Exchange in Nogarole Rocca / Verona (May 2012), Read For The World (June 2012) & Bloomnibus at the Irish Writers' Centre (June 2013) and at Galway Pro Choice in association with Over The Edge (August 2013). A self confessed addict of short stories, June is currently working on a collection of stories themed around 'the city', and a novel set in the Blitz in Coventry and in 1980s Dublin. She'll be reading the prologue to the book Domestic Blitz  at Over The Edge.

Eileen Sheehan is from Killarney, Co Kerry. Her collections are Song of the Midnight Fox and Down the Sunlit Hall (Doghouse Books). Anthology publications include The Watchful Heart: A New Generation of Irish Poets (ed Joan McBreen/Salmon Poetry) and TEXT: A Transition Year English Reader (ed Niall MacMonagle/ Celtic Press). She has worked as Poet in Residence with Limerick Co Council Arts Office and is on the organizing committee for Éigse Michael Hartnett Literary & Arts Festival. Her third collection, The Narrow Place of Souls, is forthcoming.

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.

Poetry at Democrats Abroad Ireland event for John F. Kennedy 50th anniversary

Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins will be reading a couple of poems at this event on Friday November 22nd.

"Join Democrats Abroad Ireland next Friday, November 22nd in Galway as we mark the 50th anniversary of the tragic passing of John F. Kennedy - a great President, a great Democrat, and a Son of Ireland.

We will conduct a memorial service on the afternoon of the 22nd of November 2013 at 1:00pm in the plaza of the Galway City Museum.

Addressing the gathering will be Rev. Harcourt Klinefelter, former Aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Assistant Director of Public Relations to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C) from 1965-1969. Rev. Klinefelter will speak to John F. Kennedy's contribution and support of the civil rights movement and the overall legacy of his administration and family.  

Also participating in the memorial service also will be the colour guard of the Irish United Nations Veterans Association, readings from Irish and American poets Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars from the Galway Arts Centre, and a reflection by Larry Donnelly, Lecturer at NUI Galway, former legal counsel of Democrats Abroad Ireland, and a Boston native. Democrats Abroad Ireland is proud to be conducting one of the first memorial services in the world on the anniversary of such a historic day.

Where: Galway City Museum Plaza, Spanish Arch, Galway.

When: 1:00-1:45pm on Friday the 22nd of November 2013. All are welcome."

Special ‘Away with Words’ Over The Edge Reading

A special Over The Edge reading in conjunction with Away with Words, the Galway based creative writing programme for people with intellectual disabilities, will take place on Thursday, November 28^th, 6.30-8pm in Galway City Library. All are welcome to attend.

The Away with Words writers will read their poems and stories and the Away With Words creative writing tutors Mary Madec, Kevin Higgins & Susan Millar DuMars will also read from their own published books of poetry and short stories.

At the end of the evening there will be an open-mic in which anyone may participate.

Away with Words is an innovative arts project which enables people with intellectual disabilities to explore and develop their creativity through writing. At the 2012 Cúirt International Festival of Literature Salmon Poetry launched Jessica Casey and Other Works, a collection of stories and poems by Away with Words writers. For more about Jessica Casey and Other Works see http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=257&a=217

VENUE: GALWAY CITY LIBRARY 6.30 – 8pm, Thursday, November 28^th

FOR FURTHER DETAILS PHONE 087-6431748 or 091-721436.

Away with Words warmly acknowledges the support of the Brothers of Charity, Galway City VEC & Galway City Council.

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