Barbara Smith, Megan Buckley & Jean Folan for November 1st Over The Edge: Open Reading

The next ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thurs., November 1st, 6.30-8.00pm.

The Featured Readers are Barbara Smith, Megan Buckley and Jean Folan.

Barbara Smith lives in Drogheda. Her debut collection Kairos is published by Doghouse Books. She is pursuing an MA in Creative Writing in Queens University. Her work has been published widely in journals in Ireland and abroad. Barbara’s blog is http://intendednot2b.blogspot.com/

Megan Buckley is a Doctoral Teaching Fellow in the English Department at NUIG, where she also received her M.A. in Writing. Her poetry has been published in the US, the UK, and Ireland, and she is the author of two books on wine and cocktails. Before moving to Ireland in 2004, she worked as a literary agent in her native New York.

Jean Folan is a Galwegian now living in west Sligo. She has returned to writing after many years. Her first poems were published in Criterion in the early 1970’s. She featured in Sunday Miscellany in 2005 and has recently published in Crannog, West 47online and in the Cuirt Annual. She has participated in poetry workshops in the Galway Arts Centre.

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


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

Micéal Kearney & Neil McCarthy Take First & Second Place in 2007 B.A.F.F.L.E Festival Competition

Micéal Kearney has won this weekend's 2007 B.A.F.F.L.E Festival performance poetry competition with his poem Multi-cultural ethnic diversity and all that other stuff. http://www.baffle.ie/








Micéal also won this year's Cúirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam. As part of his Cúirt prize he recently read his poetry at Slovenia's premier literary festival; and he will soon be off to read in Chicago's Green Mill, the birth-place of Slam poetry. Micéal was a Featured Reader at the September 2006 Over The Edge: Open Reading. He began writing seriously after taking a creative writing class with Susan Millar DuMars at G.M.I.T in the Autumn of 2005.


Neil McCarthy took second place.












Neil's work has been widely published. He was a Featured Reader at the October 2004 Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library. Neil also read at this year's Cúirt Festival/Over The Edge Showcase reading. http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/west47/west47-27/over.html

Alan McMonagle awarded Arts Council Literature Bursary

Congratulations to Galway-based writer Alan McMonagle who has just been awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council.

Alan is originally from Longford but now lives in Galway City. He writes both fiction and poetry. He recently completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway. He was a Featured Reader at the March 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library.

http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/news/news.aspx?article=ee4f31b0-aa57-4904-b09b-c893337510f5

Lunchtime with Melanie Frances at Galway City Museum

The Friday Lunchtime Reading Series in Galway City Museum
presents

Melanie Frances (Montreal)

To celebrate the Launch of "Anatomy of a Love Affair" (My Life in the Movies) Melanie Francis' latest collection, published by Salmon Poetry on Friday Oct. 26th in the Galway City Museum at 1pm.

Contribution: 5 Euro

Mélanie Francès was born in Paris on October 18th, 1972, with Canadian and French origins and grew up in France. As a young girl, she lived for four years in New Delhi, India, where she learned English and started a lifelong love story with the language. As a college student, she discovered her gift for writing and developed an interest in the arts and American literature. She later moved to Montreal, Canada to pursue her graduate studies at Concordia University and obtained an M.A. Degree in English and Creative Writing. In 2001, she published her first chapbook of poetry, The World is in your Head, with Ginninderra Press in Australia. She lives in Montreal where she works in communications and public relations and is currently working on her first novel about the immigrant experience and the birth of the movies at the beginning of the century in the USA.

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
The poems of Anatomy of a Love Affair (My Life in the Movies) explore the constant interaction between everyday life and art and the imaginary space it provides all of us. In the first section which gives its title to the collection, a poetic sequence retells a real-life love affair from beginning to end, from the encounter to the break-up, through memories of love as it is remembered by the author and through the lens of pivotal and memorable movie scenes that seem to mirror her own experiences. With ritualistic cadence and use of the long line, the poems in this collection weave a web of stories that illustrate the ongoing interplay of personal experience and art, photographs, music and films that haunt us and make us who we are.

Rita Ann Higgins at North Beach Poetry Nights

Rita Ann Higgins reads at BK's.

A rare opportunity to hear Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins read as guest poet at North Beach Poetry Nights in BK's Winebar, Spanish Parade.


Ever since the publication of Goddess on the Mervue Bus and Witch in the Bushes in the early 1980's, Rita Ann has become one of the foremost poetic voices in Ireland. She has read in most countries and at most of the famous universities in the world. Gerry Ryan and Pat Kenny have also had the pleasure of her "on-air" company.

Rita Ann's poetry is straight-talking and hard-hitting.
Her poetry readings are always memorable.

also

The North Beach Poetry Nights' 2 - Round Slam

Poets wishing to enter the Slam are requested to bring along 2 poems, max. 3 minutes each. The winner of the Slam receives a bottle of red wine courtesy of BK's Winebar and automatically goes forward to the North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam on December 22nd.

The prize for the winner of the Grand Slam is the publication of a collection of the winner's
poetry.

Thursday 25 October 9 pm
BK's Winebar
Spanish Parade, Galway

Info: john walsh at 091-593290

Louis Jenkins, Tamar Yoseloff & Geraldine Mills at Sheridan's Wine Bar

Louis Jenkins

Over The Edge presents a reading by Louis Jenkins, Tamar Yoseloff & Geraldine Mills at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway
on Friday, October 19th, 8pm.
Tamar Yoseloff










Louis Jenkins was born and raised in Oklahoma and now lives in Minnesota. In addition to extensive experience as a poetry workshop leader, he has been a truck driver, farm-hand, ranch-hand, fisherman, librarian, construction worker, museum guard, gardener and shoe salesman. One of America's leading writers of prose poems, he’s a favourite on Garrison Keillor's popular radio show A Prairie Home Companion. His seventh book, North of the Cities, was published this year.

Tamar Yoseloff was born in the US in 1965 but now lives in London. Her first collection, Sweetheart (Slow Dancer Press, 1998) was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation and the winner of the Aldeburgh Festival Prize. She received a New Writers’ Award from London Arts for her second collection, Barnard’s Star (Enitharmon Press, 2004). In 2005 she was Writer in Residence at Magdalene College, Cambridge, as part of their Year in Literature Festival. Her third collection, Fetch, was published recently by Salt Publishing.

Geraldine Mills, a native of Galway, began her writing career in Dublin where she lived for twenty years before returning with her family to settle in Rosscahill Co. Galway in 1995. Bradshaw Books published her two collections of poetry, Unearthing your Own(2001) and Toil the Dark Harvest (2004) She was the Millennium Hennessy/Sunday Tribune New Irish Writer Of The Year. Her first short story collection, The Lick of the Lizard, was published by Arlen House in 2005 and her second, The Weight of Feathers, is published very soon also by Arlen House.

There is no entrance fee. All are welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

Writers Group of the Year Award

As part of the second National Writers Group Festival, the Longford Arts Office invites entries for the Writers Group of the Year Award. For this, groups are asked to submit a portfolio containing one poem, one short story, one short short, and a group profile.

Judging the portfolios will be Jean O'Brien, author of two chapbooks and two poetry collections; Leo Cullen, winner of the 'PEN' Ireland & UK short story competition; Martina Devlin, award-winning journalist and author of five novels; and Kevin Higgins, co-organiser of the Over The Edge literary events in Galway and author of two poetry collections.

Prizes: First Prize: €500, Second Prize: €300, Third Prize: €150.
Entries must arrive on or before Friday 14th December 2007.

For a full list of competition rules and guidelines, visit http://virtualwriter.net

For further information, contact Anne Collins at acollins@longfordcoco.ie

Four poetry collections launched at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop by Over The Edge

Photos by Jessie Lendennie

Dave Lordan reads from The Boy In The Ring

Billy Ramsell reads from Complicated Pleasures

Alan Jude Moore

Alan Jude Moore reading from Mike Begnal's Ancestor Worship

Professor Brian Arkins introducing Knute Skinner

Knute Skinner reading from Fifty Years: Poem 1957-2007

Billy Ramsell

Dave Lordan relaxes

Susan Millar DuMars

Charlie Byrne and bookshop manager, Vinny Browne

Kevin Higgins with the Salmon anthology

Over The Edge facilitated the Galway launch of Ancestor Worship by Michael S. Begnal (Salmon Poetry); Fifty Years: Poems 1957-2007 Poems by Knute Skinner (Salmon Poetry);The Boy in the Ring by Dave Lordan (Salmon Poetry) & Complicated Pleasures by Billy Ramsell (Dedalus Press) http://www.dedaluspress.com/poets/ramsell.html

at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop Middle Street, Galway

on Friday 12th October.

Dave Lordan, Billy Ramsell & Knute Skinner read from their collections.

Mike Begnal was sadly unable to attend due to plane delays which left him stranded in the US.

Mike's good friend and fellow Salmon poet, Alan Jude Moore, stepped in to read a selection of poems from Ancestor Worship.

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

Over The Edge 'New Writer of The Year': Winning Entry Published in West 47 Online

Kevin Lavelle from Barna in County Galway is the 2007 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year.


'Bury Me In The Garden', the story which won Kevin Lavelle the competition is published in the latest issue of Galway Arts Centre's online literary quarterly West 47 online. It can be read at http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/west47/review.html

Over The Edge would like to thank Galway Arts Centre and especially Maura Kennedy for their support in publishing Kevin's winning story.

Australian Poet Earl Livings at City Museum Lunchtime Reading & North Beach Poetry Nights

North Beach Poetry Nights and The Friday Lunchtime Reading Series in Galway City Museum present Earl Livings (Australia) on Thursday Oct. 11th in BK's Winebar, Spanish Arch at 9 pm and Friday Oct. 12th in the Galway City Museum at 1pm.

Earl Livings was born and educated in Melbourne. He is a poet, creative writing teacher and editor of Divan, Australia's first online poetry journal. His poetry, fiction and non-fiction have been published widely in Australia. He is also a frequent reader on radio. He currently teaches Creative Writing at Box Hill Institute, Northcote,Victoria. His latest collection is Further Than Nights.

also

The North Beach Poetry Nights' 2 - Round Slam

Poets wishing to enter the Slam are requested to bring along 2 poems, max. 3 minutes each. The winner of the Slam receives a bottle of red wine courtesy of BK's Winebar. Two finalists this

month automatically go forward to the North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam on December 22nd. The prize for the winner of the Grand Slam is the publication of a collection of the winner's poetry.

Thursday 11 October 9 pm Friday 12 Oct. 1 pm
BK's Winebar Galway City Museum
Spanish Parade, Galway

Check out the NEW!!! North Beach Poetry Nights MySpace for all the news.
You might be there! www.myspace.com/northbeachpoetrynights

Info: john walsh at 091-593290