Over the Edge New Writer of the Year: 2010 Competition announced, 2009 winners published

UPDATE: THE 2010 OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION

HAS RECEIVED A RECORD 340 ENTRIES

2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop & Michael D. Higgins TD

In 2010 Over The Edge is continuing its exciting annual creative writing competition. The competition is open to both poets and fiction writers. The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the overall winner total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2010. The 2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at a reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 2010/11. Salmon Poetry will read without prejudice a manuscript submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category.

Entries should be sent to Over The Edge, New Writer of the Year competition, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway, Ireland with an accompanying SAE. Entries will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on your poem(s) or story. Put your contact details on a separate sheet.

Criteria: fiction of up to three thousand words, three poems of up to forty lines, or one poem of up to one hundred lines. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must be accompanied by a fee. The fee for one entry is €10. The fee for multiple entries is €7.50 per entry e.g. two entries will cost €15, three entries €22.50 and so on. Fee payable by cheque or money order to Over The Edge. To take part you must be at least sixteen years old by September 1st 2010 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in that genre. Chapbooks excepted. Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition.

The closing date is Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010. A longlist will be announced in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010. A shortlist will be announced at the Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 26th. The winners will be announced at the Over The Edge reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 30th, 2010.

This year’s competition judge is James Martyn. James is from Galway where he is a member of The Talking Stick Writing Workshop. James writes both fiction and poetry. He has had work broadcast on both RTE and BBC and won the Listowel Writers Week Originals Short Story Competition. His work has appeared in The Cúirt Journal, West 47, Books Ireland, Crannóg, TheSunday Tribune, The Stinging Fly and The Shop. He was shortlisted for a Hennessy Award in 2006. He was shortlisted for the Francis McManus award in both 2007 and 2008 and for The William Trevor International Short Story Competition in 2007. His first collection of poetry, Shedding Skin, has just been published by Arlen House.

For further details contact Over The Edge on 087-6431748, e-mail over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

Over The Edge New Writer of the Year: 2009 winners

2009 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year: David Mohan

David Mohan is based in Dublin and writes poetry and short stories. He has been published in The Sunday Tribune, The Stony Thursday Book, Southword, and the anthology Night and Day. He has won the Hennessy Sunday Tribune Poetry Award, as well as the 2008 overall New Irish Writer Award. As part of his prize as 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year David will be a Featured Reader at the Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 27th.

Click to read the winning poems:
Come to Light
Nursing a Star
The Samurai Lovers




Fiction section winner: Orla Higgins

Orla Higgins lives in Galway and recently graduated with an MA in Writing from NUIG. She has won the Over the Edge New Fiction Writer Competition in 2009 for Thin Blue Line and her work has been published in Ropes and Crannog. Orla was also a featured reader at the Over The Edge Emerging Writers Showcase at the 2009 Cuirt International Festival of Literature.

Click to read Thin Blue Line.

Summer Bargains from Doire Press

'Will Days Indeed Come: I Come From There' - POEMS ON ISRAEL & PALESTINE

Over The Edge is looking for poems from poets worldwide on any aspect of the Israel-Palestine issue. The poems can be from any point of view. The only criteria being that they must work as poems and be in some way relevant to what has been happening in that part of the world. 

We also welcome poems from those living in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank on any aspect of life as it is lived there.

We will publish the poems as part of a special feature here on the Over The Edge website.

The title of the project Will Days Indeed Come: I Come From There is borrowed from the titles of two poems: Will Days Indeed Come by Leah Goldberg and I Come From There by Mahmoud Darwish.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Poems should be e-mailed, both in the body of the e-mail and as an attachment to over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com Poets should also simultaneously send a bio of no more than thirty words in the same format.

Over The Edge Summer Open-Mic @ Westside Library ALL WELCOME TO READ

Over The Edge in association with Westside Arts Festival presents a reading by the Westside Writers and the 2010 Over The Edge Summer Open-mic at Westside Library, Seamus Quirke Road on Wednesday, July 21st from 7 pm.

The Westside Library Writers, who have participated in a series of workshops facilitated by Kevin Higgins, will read from their work. Afterwards the annual Over The Edge Summer Open-mic will take place. Everyone who has a poem or story to share is most welcome to take part. So, if you have some writing you’d like to read to an audience this is your opportunity to do so.

The MCs for the evening will be Kevin Higgins & Susan Millar DuMars. All are welcome to attend.

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

Launch of 'Away With Words' Volume 2 @ Ballybane Library

That’s LIFE, Brothers of Charity Services invites you to the launch of Away With Words Vol. 2, edited by Susan Millar DuMars, in Ballybane Library on Wednesday July 14th at 11am.

Kevin Higgins of Over the Edge will launch this collection of poetry and writings from the work of the Away With Words groups from Galway, Ballinasloe, Gort and Athenry. This is a celebration of their gifts and work. Come along and support them.

Tea, coffee and light refreshments served. All welcome.

July Writer's Gathering at Sheridan's Wine Bar: Jennifer Liston, Dave Lordan, Rosemary Canavan, Drucilla Wall & Elaine Feeney

Jennifer Liston

Over The Edge presents readings by poets, Dave Lordan, Rosemary Canavan, Elaine Feeney & Drucilla Wall plus the Galway launch of Lead Skeletons, a new poetry collection by Jennifer Liston, at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway on Friday, July 9th, 8pm.

Jennifer Liston was born in Limerick and grew up in Gort, Co Galway, Ireland. She now lives in Adelaide, Australia. Her first collection of poetry, Exposure, was published by Ginninderra Press in May 2003. Her second collection of poetry, 17 poems: one for every year of innocence, was published by White Wave Press in 2008. Jennifer was a member of a poetry group in Sydney, a member of the Canberra Closet Poets group, and is a founding member of the Adelaide Closet Poets. She is also a member of the South Australian Writers’ Centre. She has performed her poems at several Irish and Australian poetry events. Lead Skeletons is Jennifer’s third collection of poetry and is published by White Wave Press. The book will be launched on the night by Kevin Higgins.

Dave Lordan was born in Derby, England, in 1975, and grew up in Clonakilty in West Cork. In 2004 he was awarded an Arts Council bursary and in 2005 he won the Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry. His collections are The Boy in The Ring (Salmon Poetry, 2007), which won the Strong Award for best first collection by an Irish writer and was shortlisted for the Irish Times poetry prize; and Invitation to a Sacrifice (Salmon Poetry, 2010) which is just published. Eigse Riada theatre company produced his first play, Jo Bangles, at the Mill Theatre, Dundrum in 2010. He has lived in Holland, Greece and Italy, and now resides in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

Poet, children’s author, teacher, visual artist, Rosemary Canavan was born in Scotland, brought up in County Antrim and lives in Cork. Her first collection, The Island (2004), was published by Story Line Press, and was short-listed for the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize. Her second collection, Trucker's Moll (Salmon, 2009), was launched at the Munster Literature Centre's Éigse 2009 festival. In 2001 she was Writer-in-Residence for Co. Kerry, and from 2006-2007 she was Poetry Editor for Southword. Her two children’s books, Lios Chaitríona and Caitriona agus an tÉan Oir, were published by An Gúm, and she has read at a number of festivals including the Cheltenham Literary Festival.


Drucilla Wall has published poems and essays in Cream City Review, Kalliope, The People Who Stayed: South Eastern Indian Writing After Removal; Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: Breaking the Great Silence of the American Indian Holocaust; Times of Sorrow/Times of Grace: Writing by Women of the Great Plains/High Plains; and True West: Authenticity and the American West. She serves on the executive board for the Western Literature Association and holds membership in the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers. She teaches writing at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. Her first collection of poem, The Geese At The Gates, will be published very early next year by Salmon Poetry.

Elaine Feeney was born in Galway in 1979. She has been writing since her early teens. In 2006 she won the North Beach Nights Grand Slam and in 2008 won the Cuirt Festival’s Poetry Grand Slam. She is a keen page and performance writer. Elaine has performed at many venues including The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Electric Picnic, The Vilenica Festival and The Cúirt International Literature Festival. She was the chosen writer on a One Sheet collaboration in 2010 with an artist and a graphic designer and this work is currently on exhibit across Dublin. Her work has been translated into Slovene. Elaine lives in Athenry with her partner Ray, and sons, Jack and Finn. Her debut collection of poetry, Where’s Katie, is just published by Salmon Poetry.

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

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