David Mohan & Orla Higgins winners in 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

David Mohan, winner in the poetry category for his poems Nursing a Star, Come to Light & The Samurai Lovers and 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year. David will receive a cash prize of €700 and will be a Featured Reader at an Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library.

David Mohan lives and works in Dublin and writes poetry. He is a member of Lucan Writers. He has had poems featured in the 2008 and 2009 Oxfam calendars, and his poems have appeared in various publications including The Sunday Tribune, Revival and the 2008 poetry anthology Night and Day. He won the 2008 Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Poetry Award, as well as the overall New Irish Writing Award.

Orla Higgins winner in the fiction category for her story Thin Blue Line. Orla will receive a cash prize of €300.

Orla Higgins lives in Galway city. After taking a number of creative writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Technical Institute, she recently completed the MA in Writing programme at NUIG and is working on her first novel. She also lectures part-time at the University with the Department of Marketing and the Huston School of Film. Orla was a Featured Reader at the September 2008 Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library and was also selected by the Cúirt Festival panel to read at the 2009 Cúirt Festival Over The Edge showcase.

The competition judge was Patrick Chapman. He had this to say about the winning entries:

“while there were many fine pieces on the shortlist, the winners stood out. They sustained their individual visions to the end with clarity, style and imagination; and their work was a pleasure to discover. I am glad to congratulate David Mohan and Orla Higgins, and I look forward to seeing much more of their work in the future.”

The shortlisted writers were
Graham Allen, Cork
Lisa Allen, Galway
Elizabeth Brennan, Dublin
Brendan Carey Kinane, Dublin
Mike Casey, Dublin
Paul Conway, Galway
Evan Costigan, Kildare
Madeleine Darcy, Cork
Ursula Deane, Dublin
Vincent Flannery, Galway
Andrew Fox, Dublin
Cristina Galvin, Galway
Richard Gibney, Dublin
Paul Jeffcutt, Down
Brian Kirk, Dublin
Tom Lavelle, Galway
Seán Leonard, Galway
Gemma Marren, Mayo
Patricia McAdoo, Galway
Marcella Morgan, Galway
David O'Dwyer, Dublin
Lani O'Hanlon, Waterford
Shane Ó Maoildhia, Galway
Kevin O'Shea, Galway
Brendan Murphy, Galway
Elizabeth Reapy, Mayo
Maureen Ryan, Galway – two entries on the long-list
Suzanne Walsh, Tipperary

This year's competition attracted 324 entries.

The 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition was sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Kelly Office Supplies, Mary Higgins & a generous individual donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

North Beach Poetry Nights presents An Evening of Poetry & Fiction

Celeste Augé

North Beach Nights presents an Evening of Poetry and Fiction with Celeste Auge, Maureen Gallagher, Gerry Hanberry and Hugo Kelly in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway at 9 pm on Monday 19th October.


Admission 5/3 Euro.


Celeste Auge published her first chapbook Tornadoes for the Weathergirl in 2006 and her first full collection The Essential Guide to Flight with Salmon Poetry in 2009. She was selected for Poetry Ireland's Introductions series in 2008 and shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award.


Maureen Gallagher published her first collection Calling the Tune with Wordsonthestreet in 2008. Her work has been anthologized in Van Gogh's Ear, Divas, Anthology 1 and others. She is an accomplished performer of her work, which has also been broadcast on RTE.


Gerry Hanberry published his third collection At Grattan Road with Salmon Poetry in 2009.In 2004 he was awarded the Brendan Kennelly / Sunday Tribune Poetry Prize. He holds an MA in Writing from the National University of Ireland, Galway where he teaches creative writing. He also won the recent Eyre Square Poetry Prize sponsored by the Arts Offices of Galway City and County Councils.


Hugo Kelly is a fiction writer and member of the long-standing and very successful Galway writers' group Talking Stick. He will read his short story Traffic Lights which this year won the prestigious Brian Moore Short Story Award sponsored by the Linen Hall Library in Belfast.


Info: John Walsh @091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council.

North Beach Poetry Nights Slam at The Crane Bar with Iggy McGovern & Stephen Powers

North Beach Poetry Nights presents on (next) Monday October 5th at 9 pm in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway

The North Beach Poetry Nights' October 2009 Slam and a double line-up with Guest Poets:
Iggy McGovern (Dublin) and Stephen Powers (Madison, Wisconsin)

Iggy McGovern was born in Coleraine and lives in Dublin. His poems have appeared widely in both journal and anthology formats, as well as in the "Poetry In Motion" series on DART trains. Awards include the McCrea Literary Award, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary and the Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry. He also won the RTE Rattlebag Slam. A first collection, The King of Suburbia, published by Dedalus Press in 2005, received the inaugural Glen Dimplex New Writers Award for Poetry in 2006. He is Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College.

Stephen Powers was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in the cornfields of nearby Sun Prairie. While working on his PhD in English he wrote a stand-up act about his hearing impairment and performed for several years in comedy clubs and casinos around the American Midwest. Today he splits his time between Milwaukee and Georgia, where he teaches at Gordon College and enjoys the beaches of Tybee Island. The Follower's Tale (Salmon Poetry) is his first book.

'Like nothing else in Tennessee or anywhere else, Stephen Roger Powers' The Follower's Tale explores the lovestorms,  hardships and delights long yarned and yodeled in country songs, but this whirlwind of a collection at once ironizes, subverts and deepens the miseries  and joys of yearning without ever taking its eyes off the miraculous Dolly Parton.'

‘Dear Stephen,
I was so touched that I still have tears, and a few dropped on your poems.
I will always love you,’ Dolly Parton

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Poets wishing to take part in the 2-Round Slam please bring along two three-minute poems, preferrably memorized. The winner of each month's Slam goes forward to the 2009 North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam in December 2009. The prize for the Grand Slam winner is publication of a collection of her/his work.

Admission 5/ 3 Euro.

North Beach Poetry Nights gratefully acknowledges the support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

info: john walsh @ 091-593290

National Poetry Day Reading in Eyre Square

To mark the second All Ireland Poetry Day, Galway City Council Arts Office and Galway County Arts Office have jointly organized a poetry competition on the subject of EYRE SQUARE , which was open to anyone resident in Galway City or County. A shortlist of 20 poems has now been drawn up from the hundreds of entries, which includes poems by Gerry Hanberry, Kevin Higgins, Celeste Augé and others. Some of these poems have already been posted up in and around Eyre Square for passers by to read.

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill

The winner will be announced at a public reading on Eyre Square at 1 PM on Poetry Day, Thursday 1 October. The first prize is 1000 Euro and runner-up prizes of residencies in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Aras Eanna, Inis Oirr, are also on offer.

The winner will be announced by the competition judge Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and Galway County Writer in Residence, Michael O'Loughlin, and there will be readings by the shortlisted poets and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

Marcella Morgan, Shane Ó Maoildhia & Bernadette Cremin for September 'Over The Edge: Open Reading'

Bernadette Cremin

The September Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, September 24th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Marcella Morgan, Shane Ó Maoildhia & Bernadette Cremin.

Marcella Morgan is originally from Maynooth, but has been living in Galway for the past year and a half. She spends her days fixin’ troushers in an alterations shop in town, and her nights writing poems about her angry womb. She has attended several writing workshops with Susan Millar DuMars where she learnt how to make a bomb using bread soda, an empty beer can and a thong. Susan also taught her how to spell trousers. Marcella has been short-listed for 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year.

Shane Ó Maoildhia is from Carraroe in Connemara. He has been writing poetry since primary school. In May 2008 he attended a series of writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars to get some constructive criticism on his poetry, and started writing short stories. He graduated with a science degree from NUI Galway in 2005, and hopes to be teaching English in Japan this time next year. Shane has been short-listed for 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year.

Bernadette Cremin lives in Brighton and has previously worked as a social worker, tea lady, sociology lecturer, TEFL teacher, bank clerk and waitress. She has published two collections of poetry, the award winning Perfect Mess (Biscuit Publishing, 2005) and Speechless (Waterloo Press, 2007). Her third collection, Miming Silence, will be published by Waterloo Press in November.  Bernadette has won a Year Of The Artist award, a performance poetry bursary and been published widely in the UK and Ireland. Her work featured in last year’s Forward Book of Poetry. She is currently doing a whistle stop reading tour of Ireland.

There will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners of the 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition. 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 and The Arts Council.

Walk and Workshop with Miceál Kearney

Saturday October 17th.
A Group Workshop —
Poetry or Fiction
Nestled between the grey rocks,
under the green leaves
I make a living from
in relaxed surroundings,
interactive environments.

Nines Places Available.
For Details:
kearneymiceal@yahoo.ie