Over The Edge Celebrates Ninth Birthday with Reading by Leanne O’Sullivan, Damian Cunniffe & Dearbhaile Houston

Leanne O'Sullivan

The first Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2012 takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, January 19th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Leanne O’Sullivan. This is a very special occasion as it is now exactly nine years since Over The Edge was born in Galway City Library in January 2003.

Dearbhaile Houston grew up in Co. Galway. She is in her first year of New Media and English at the University of Limerick, learning the art of procrastination and strong coffee. She began attending Creative Writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars last spring and recently won the Seán Uí Riordáin prize for poetry in the Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary Competition 2011.

Damian Cunniffe is from Abbeyknockmoy in North County Galway. In 2011 he was longlisted for the Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize, the Ink Tears Prize and was joint winner of the Lonely Voices Short Story Introductions competition run by the Irish Writers Centre. He was also runner-up in the fiction section of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year competition. His work has been published in Crannóg and the Cúirt Journal. Damien has had articles published in several newspapers, including the Galway Advertiser. He is currently working on a play and a collection of short stories.

Leanne O’Sullivan was born on the Beara Peninsula in west Cork in 1983, and now lives in Cork city. Her poetry collections are Waiting for My Clothes (2004) and Cailleach: The Hag of Beara (2009) both published by Bloodaxe Books. Her work has been included in various anthologies, including Selina Guinness’ The New Irish Poets and Billy Collins’s Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry. In 2009 Leanne was awarded the Ireland Chair of Poetry bursary; in 2010 she won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature; and in 2011 she received the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry.

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.
 

Writers At Work: A New Course With Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Arts Centre

Have you got pages in a drawer you’ve been wanting to show someone?

This course is for writers who are at work on a project. This could be a novel, short story, collection of stories, sequence of poems, or even a play or film script.

Participants’ only homework each week will be to read two fifteen page extracts from other students’ manuscripts and be prepared for a 20-30 minute discussion on same. Providing generous and specific feedback on others’ work helps us to be inspired risk takers in our own writing. Each participant will experience at least one such session of feedback on their own work. An in-class writing exercise at the start of each class will serve to further shake off mental cobwebs, and perhaps lead us into new writing.

This is an ideal course for the hardworking but isolated writer.

The course is takes place on Tuesdays (2-4pm) starting on Tuesday February 7th and runs for six weeks. Places must be booked in advance. The cost to participants is €85 with a concession rate of €75. To register contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, Galway. Telephone 091-565886. Email: victoria@galwayartscentre.ie  

Facilitator Susan Millar DuMars’ debut poetry collection, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2008. Her next collection, Dreams for Breakfast, appeared in 2010. Her work features in Landing Places, Dedalus’ 2010 anthology of immigrant poetry written in Ireland; and also in The Best Of Irish Poetry 2010. A fiction writer as well, she published a collection of short stories, Lights In The Distance, with Doire Press in 2010. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary for her stories. Susan teaches creative writing to adults and to groups with special needs. She lives in Galway, where she and her husband have run the Over the Edge readings series since 2003. Susan is currently at work on her third poetry collection, The God Thing, to be published in early 2013 by Salmon.

New Year Creative Writing Classes at Galway Technical Institute - BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7-9.30pm. (8 weeks) It commences on Monday, January 16th, 2012. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120. Kevin Higgins will provide writing exercises for, and give gentle critical feedback to, those interested in trying their hand at writing poems, stories or memoir.

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Tuesday) from 7-9.30pm (8 weeks) It commences on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120. This class is suitable for those who’ve participated in creative writing classes before or begun to have work published in magazines. Flexible exercises and work-shopping of assignments, together with the study of the works of published writers, will help each class member to find their own writing voice.

To book a place in either class contact GTI, Father Griffin Road, Galway.

Places can be booked via the G.T.I website http://www.gti.ie:5678/adulteducation/

People can also enrol at Galway Technical Institute on Monday January 9th, 6.30-8.30pm, using credit/debit card.

Launch of 'Turning on a Sixpence' first poetry collection by Jack McCann

~~~~~

Launch

of

“Turning on a Sixpence”

The first book of poetry by Jack McCann who worked as Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Galway University Hospitals from 1989 to 2010.

on

Tuesday, 20 December at 1.30pm

Location: Arts Corridor of University Hospital Galway

~~~~~~~~~

Please confirm attendance with Margaret Flannery, Arts Officer, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust on 091 544979 or 087 1250461.

Jack McCann was born in Rush, County Dublin in 1949, one of three children. He was brought up in Malahide and studied Medicine in UCD. After many years of training and travelling, he settled with his family in Galway in 1989 as a Consultant Plastic Surgeon. In 2004 he visited Albania for the first time and in 2005 he and his wife co-founded the charity “Irish Friends of Albania”. He has returned twice a year since then with teams of volunteers to work in hospitals and this has inspired many of his poems. In 2009 he joined Galway University Hospital Writers Group and is now a member of KARA Writers Group. He has written four plays and is currently working on his next collection of poetry. He retired from hospital practice in 2010 and now enjoys writing, farming, sailing and family. He has three adult children and two grandchildren, and lives with his wife Moya in Oughterard, County Galway.

Turning On A Sixpence is Jack's first publication.

Tamar Yoseloff, Christopher Meehan & Maeve Mulrennan for final 'Over The Edge: Open Reading' of 2011

Tamar Yoseloff

The December Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, December 15th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Maeve Mulrennan, Christopher Meehan & Tamar Yoseloff.

Maeve Mulrennan grew up in County Kildare. She studied Arts Administration and Policy at NUI Galway is currently Visual Arts Office at Galway Arts Centre. An experience visual artist, Maeve recently began writing fiction. She attended Celeste Augé’s short fiction class at Galway Arts Centre earlier this year and in October took part in the annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam. This is Maeve’s first major public reading of her work.

Christopher Meehan is originally from Kilkee in County Clare but has been living in Kinvara, Co. Galway since 2008. Christopher holds a B.A. degree in Heritage Studies and was awarded a Master of Science degree in 2007 for research conducted on the wildfowl populations of the Western Lakes. It is this interest in nature, landscape, Irish heritage and our interaction with these elements that strongly influences his writing. He has attended creative writing classes and workshops run by Susan DuMars in Galway and has published papers based on his ornithological work.

Tamar Yoseloff was born in the U.S. in 1965, but has lived in the U.K. since 2007. 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. She divides her time between London and Suffolk, and is currently working on her first novel. Her most recent poetry collection, The City with Horns, was published in May by Salt Publishing and her work also features in the anthology Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Spring 2010, Bloodaxe).

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 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.

Over The Edge to receive increased funding from Arts Council in 2012

We are delighted to announce that we have been informed today that Over The Edge is to receive a 14% increase in Arts Council funding for 2012.

In a joint statement Over The Edge co-organisers, Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins, said: "This is a really outstanding result, especially given the current economic context. It puts Over The Edge on an absolutely firm foundation for the coming year. We would like to thank the Arts Council for their support."

We look forward to seeing many of you at the final 'Over The Edge: Open Reading' of 2011 in Galway City Library on Thursday, December 15th, 6.30-8pm, when the Featured Readers will be Christopher Meehan, Maeve Mulrennan & Tamar Yoseloff.

North Beach Poetry Nights 2011 Grand Slam with Rita Ann Higgins

North Beach Poetry Nights' 2011 Grand Slam

Monday 12th December

in the Crane Bar at 9 pm

with guest poet: Rita Ann Higgins

It's over 4 years since Rita Ann read for North Beach. The evening was such a roaring success that it got them thrown out of their then venue: BK's restaurant (which, as some people will have noticed, has since disappeared also!)

Rita Ann will be reading from her new poetry collection Ireland is Changing Mother, which 'chronicles the lives of the Irish dispossessed, before as well as since the demise of the Celtic tiger ...'

Eight poets have qualified for this year's Grand Slam, which will be a 2-round slam for all eight poets. The winning three poets will be published together in 2013 in the North Beach Poetry Nights' Anthology 2.

Rita Ann will be one of the panel of three judges.

Info: John Walsh @ 091-593290

Erin Buttner, Stephen Byrne & Donna Potts for November 'Over The Edge: Open Reading'

Donna Potts

The November Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, November 24th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Erin Buttner, Stephen Byrne & Donna Potts.

Erin Buttner is a writer, baker, broadcaster, and veteran living in Kinvara, Co Galway. A native New Yorker, Erin immigrated to Ireland in 2008 to take a Master's degree in Writing at NUI Galway. Her poetry has been published in Chronogram arts magazine in New York, Three Times Daily and Ropes. She is presently drafting her memoir based on the 4 years she spent serving in the US Military. She can be heard every Sunday from 3-5pm on Rascal Radio.

Stephen Byrne is from Coolock North Dublin but for last eight years has lived and sweated in a kitchen as a chef in Galway. He has participated in Kevin Higgins's poetry class at Galway Arts Centre and was chosen to participate in the poetry master class with Simon Armitage at this years Cúirt Festival. He was short-listed for in this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition. His interests are mainly surrealist poetry and he is currently working on two collections of poems. His work has been published in Longpoem magazine and Arc Poetry Magazine in Canada.

Donna Potts grew up in Joplin, Missouri and is a professor at Kansas State University. In 1994 her book length study of the poetry of Howard Nemerov was published by University of Missouri Press. Her book on contemporary Irish poetry is forthcoming also from University of Missouri press. Her own debut collection of poetry, Waking Dreams, will be published early next year by Salmon Poetry.

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 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.

Galway City Council Arts Grant Announcement

Over The Edge was delighted to learn just now that we have been awarded the same amount under Galway City Council's 2011 Arts Grants as we received in 2010, 2009 & 2008.This will be a great help to us in keeping our extensive literary programme going, and indeed expanding it next year.

IRISH WRITERS' CENTRE 'PEREGRINE READINGS' TOUR COMES TO PORTUMNA

WRITERS: Liam Carson, Henry McDonald, Ivy Bannister

Tuesday 15 November - Irish Writers’ Centre 7.30pm

Wednesday 16 November- Anam Cara Retreat, Cork 8.30pm

Thursday 17 November - Church of Ireland, Portumna,

County Galway 7.30pm

Link to more info on the writers is here: http://www.writerscentre.ie/html/events/peregrinecarson.html

North Beach Poetry Nights monthly slam plus featured readers Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabháin & Sarah Clancy

Sarah Clancy

North Beach Poetry Nights' Slam

Monday 21st November

in the Crane Bar at 9 pm

with guests: Connacht Slam Champions

Sarah Clancy and

Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabháin

Poets wishing to enter the Slam should have 2 max. 3 minute poems.

The poem for the 2nd round must be performed without a script.

So time to get memorizing now!

Info: John@ 091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights acknowledges the generous support of Galway City Council.

Reading from '30 Poems to Daniela' by Sean Kavanagh at Sheridan's Wine Bar

a reading from

30 Poems to Daniela

by Sean Kavanagh

at Sheridan's Cheesemongers Winebar

8pm Thursday 3rd November

This is a highly acclaimed book which traces the tragic passing of Sean's partner and his promise to write her 30 poems. Its only the second reading of the book.

The night will be full of honesty and humor.

The book is now on sale in Charlie Byrnes.

Further information from Seamus 086 8042418

Galway launch of 'Writing The Irish West' by Eamonn Wall

The Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway

presents

 Irish Studies Seminar Series

Where the Trails Converge: Writing the Contemporary Irish and American Wests

Professor Eamonn Wall

University of Missouri-St. Louis

Thursday 3 November 2011

4.00pm

Followed by book launch at 5.30pm:

Writing the Irish West:

Ecologies and Traditions

by Eamonn Wall

(University of Notre Dame Press, 2011)

 

at the Centre for Irish Studies NUI Galway

October ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ with Kevin Simmonds, Luke Morgan & Jessie Lendennie; Over The Edge Celebrates Salmon Poetry’s 30th Anniversary

Kevin Simmonds

The October Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, October 27th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Kevin Simmonds, Luke Morgan & Jessie Lendennie. This is one of a series of readings this Autumn which will mark Salmon Poetry’s 30th anniversary.

Kevin Simmonds is a San Francisco-based writer, musician and filmmaker originally from New Orleans. His writing appears in journals such as Asia Literary Review, Callaloo, jubilat, Kyoto Journal and Poetry. His edited works include Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality and Ota Benga Under My Mother's Roof. His music and performances have been featured on BBC Radio 3, PBS and Japan's NHK Television and at London's Royal Festival Hall, Japan's Nakano Sun Plaza and the National Black Theatre Festival. feti(sh)ame, his genre-defying short film, based entirely on his poetry, has screened internationally and been hailed by Los Angeles film critic Ernest Hardy as "an elegantly profane meditation on desire". Mad for Meat - his debut collection of poetry, has just appeared from Salmon.

Luke Morgan is a poet based in Co. Galway. He began writing from a very young age and had poems published in the school magazines. At fifteen, he became the youngest ever contributor to Crannóg, the literary journal in Galway, with his poem "Moving On". Since then he has enjoyed publications in journals such as Limerick's Revival, ROPES 2011, and earlier this year, Poetry Ireland Review and the Poetry Ireland Newsletter. He won first place in the 2011 Windows Publications Student Poetry Awards. Apart from writing poetry, he loves writing plays and short stories.

Jessie Lendennie was born in Arkansas, USA. After years of travel, she settled in Ireland in 1981. Her previous publications include a book-length prose poem Daughter (1988); reprinted as Daughter and Other Poems in 2001. She compiled and edited: Salmon: A Journey in Poetry, 1981-2007; Poetry: Reading it, Writing It, Publishing It (2009) and Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology (2010). She is co-founder (1981) and Managing Director of Salmon Poetry. She has given numerous readings, lectures and writing courses in Ireland and abroad, including Yale University; The Irish Embassy, Washington D.C; The University of Alaska, Fairbanks and Anchorage; MIT, Boston; MN; Café Teatre, Copenhagen, Denmark; the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; The Irish American Cultural Centre, Chicago and The Bowery Poetry Club, New York City. She is currently working on a memoir To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky. Jessie’s second collection of poetry Walking Here is just published by Salmon Poetry; this reading will be its Galway launch.

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 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.

Mike Diskin to launch 'Killer a la Carte' by Gerry Galvin

Emer Martin Featured Reader at Third Annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam

Emer Martin

After the event’s huge success in the past two years, Over The Edge presents its third annual fiction slam with Featured Reader, Emer Martin, at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, October 14th, 8pm.

Emer Martin is a Dubliner who has lived in Paris, London, the Middle East, and various places in the U.S. Her first novel Breakfast in Babylon won Book of the Year 1996 in her native Ireland at the prestigious Listowel Writers’ Week. Houghton Mifflin released Breakfast in Babylon in the U.S. in 1997. More Bread Or I’ll Appear, her second novel was published internationally in 1999. Emer studied painting in New York and has had a sell-out solo show of her paintings at the Origin Gallery in Harcourt St, Dublin. Her most recent book is Baby Zero, published March 07. She has just completed her third short film Unaccompanied. She produced Irvine Welsh’s directorial debut NUTS in 2007. Emer was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000. She now lives in the jungles of Co. Meath, Ireland.

Poetry slams have grown in popularity during the past few years, but now it’s the fiction writers’ turn. The first twelve fiction writers to make it to The Kitchen @ The Museum on the evening of Friday, October 14th and register will be guaranteed a place in the slam. All participating writers should bring two pieces of their own fiction, as there are two rounds. The time limit in both rounds is five minutes. Extracts from longer stories are admissible. Stories do not have to be memorised. The Fiction Slam will be judged by a three person jury made up of two audience members and Emer Martin. Three writers will go through to the second round and the prize for the winner is a bottle of wine.

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.

Eimear Ryan is 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year; Marybeth Rua-Larsen wins in poetry category

The winners of this year's Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition announced

at this evening's Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library 

Eimear Ryan is 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

Results and Judges' Comments from Elaine Feeney

Prose

"This was an extremely strong competition with many entries on the shortlist very very capable and appealing voices. The entries ‘A Child Believes a Hand Can Be a Rose or a Tree’ by Damian Cunniffe (County Galway), ‘God’s Gift to Women’ by Evelyn Parsons (County Galway), ‘Queen of the Night’ by Natalie Ryan (Dublin) and 'New Year’s Day' by John Walsh (County Galway) are all highly commended in that order.

The winner in the fiction section is Eimear Ryan for her story ‘Livewire’.

‘Livewire’ opens with the most extraordinary brevity and immediate character development in the shape of Ogie and the first person narrator. "Ogie is not the prettiest sight; hair that makes me think of tarmac on a hot day, a scattering of freckles like a fistful of loose dirt". I quickly began to empathise with Ogie and his room mate. The story unfolds in the context of a hospital ward, St. Dymphna's. There is an innocence and distance to the characters in an effortless way. However it is seamless and you trust their development by the writer. Unforced metaphor weaves its way through the narrative. The writer also uses a modern angle often mentioning the everyday and setting the context without being overly specific or pedantic. It is a smart, cynical and satirical piece of prose, it is timely for the times we find ourselves in today. The inmates are doubting the system and the narrator becomes bitter when he finds out his roomate Ogie will be 'graduating' without him. "I'm in the lotus position in Eastern Meditation when Mentor Jack calls me into the corridor'. It becomes clear that Ogie was misdiagnosed, and while his brain has the scan of a sociopath, he was actually a genius, and this mistake can be made. This writer has come at a good time. Systems are flawed, but when writers try to write about this, it is often contrived. Here we have an excellent example of the passion of characters, while remaining simple and metaphorically brilliant."

Eimear Ryan was born in 1986 in Co Tipperary. She studied journalism in Dublin City University and has lived in Boston and New York, where she spent a year interning in publishing. Her short fiction has been published in The Sunday Tribune and The Stinging Fly, and she was the winner of the Hennessy Award for First Fiction 2008. She blogs at http://eimearryan.wordpress.com  

Poetry

"Heidi Wickam (Sligo), Kerrie O’Brien (Dublin), Lauren Norton (California) & Tom Lavelle (Galway City) are highly commended in that order.

The overall winner in the poetry section  is Marybeth Rua-Larsen for her poems 'Summer of Want', 'Freestyle' & 'The Dylan Boys Map Out a Route for Cinderella'.

This poet shows a flair for the aesthetic as well as unusually juxtaposed ideas. I can almost taste and smell the blueberries and the juice from the nectarines that run down the speakers' shirtfronts, while the 'summer of want' opens before them. We are left with a withering ending, a realistic account of a chase, relationship or friendship. You cannot 'preserve' the sensual abundance, it is 'unfit for freezing' and the miles cause the ripening and the beauty to rot. Clever poetic technique and beautiful sensual imagery used.

'Freestyle' unearths again the use of colour and abundance of sensual awakening, while exploring the realms of a father and daughter relationship. It is startling in its oddness and its unusual juxtaposition of the task at hand, that of fishing and yet the trust that is between the two 'a colour scheme that flips the darkest hue on top, like fish in water'. This makes me consider the gentleness of relationship as it juxtaposes the cliché of one being out of water, or out of one's depth. There is a strange sense of suspense cleverly evoked, and while there is an abundance of aesthetically wonderful language and imagery, something about the ending conjures up a sense of 'settling' or 'acceptance'.

'The Dylan Boys map out a Route for Cinderella', makes clever use of Bob Dylans' 'Desolation Row' and 'One Headlight' by Jacob Dylan of the Wallflowers. This is a powerful poem, both in its clever use of repetition and word reversals. The poem is a move away from the lyrical, slow paced and beautifully moody other two poems. In this the poet shows an ability to alter style, to move away from the stricter technique used in the other poems, while still maintaining poetic integrity. The theme is modernized and 'Cinderella is sweeping up on Desolation Row, which was always where she was headed in my opinion. The poem, extraordinarily clever in its conclusion, laments and encourages, ' I can't take the dark out of the nighttime for you Cinderella. Row away from desolation. Whatever feels like daytime is independence'. I loved these poems, strong writer, well done!"

Marybeth Rua-Larsen lives, teaches and writes in Somerset, Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared in Measure, The Raintown Review, The Barefoot Muse and Two Review, among others.

The overall winner

and 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

is Eimear Ryan.

Marybeth Rua-Larsen will receive a cash prize of €300.

Eimear Ryan will receive a cash prize of €700

and will be a Featured Reader at an Over The Edge: Open Reading during 2012.

Over The Edge warmly thanks Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Niall Ó’Brolcháin, McGinn’s Bar, Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames & Mike Cubbard for sponsoring this year’s competition.

Over The Edge poets visit Lorient for workshop and reading

The Galway-Lorient Twinning Committee, in association with Over The Edge, is facilitating a visit this month by three local poets to Galway’s twin city, Lorient in Brittany. During their visit to Lorient the poets Nicola Griffin, Mary Madec and Susan Millar DuMars will take part in a workshop with local poet Patrick Argenté on Friday, October 14th, 6-7.30pm at the Médiatheque Francois Mitterand, Lorient.

For further details of the workshop see here http://mediatheque.lorient.fr/repons/portal/bookmark;jsessionid=7BDB2E7545F7C95CC38A518D4B336132?Global=1&WaMain=15&howManyNews=1&withDbidNews=actu-1316511925784-10.14.100.4.xml

The following afternoon, Saturday, October 15th at 3pm, Nicola Griffin, Mary Madec and Susan Millar DuMars will give a reading of their poetry, with accompanying French translations. The reading will also take place at the Médiatheque Francois Mitterand.

For further details of the reading see here
http://mediatheque.lorient.fr/repons/portal/bookmark?Global=1&WaMain=15&howManyNews=1&withDbidNews=actu-1317138541321-10.14.100.4.xml

This Galway-Lorient poetry exchange follows a visit by Lorient-based poet, Patrick Argenté, to Galway in May 2010, during which he was a Featured Reader at that month’s Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library.

Nicola Griffin was the winner in the poetry category in the 2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year Competition. Her first collection of poetry will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2013.

Mary Madec’s first collection of poetry, In Other Words, was published by Salmon in 2010 and has sold so well it was recently reprinted.

Susan Millar DuMars is co-organiser of Over The Edge. She has published two collections of poetry, Big Pink Umbrella (2008) and Dreams for Breakfast (2010), both with Salmon Poetry.

ART AUCTION CHARITY FUND RAISER FOR GALWAY UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS ARTS TRUST

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is holding a charity auction in the Rowing Club on Friday October 21st to raise much needed funds to continue the arts programme with patients in Galway University Hospitals. Rod Goodall will host the auction and entertainment will be provided by the Molly Hicks and Totem Roll. The event begins at 8.30pm and tickets are €10

To continue this work the Arts Trust called on the many artists who have worked with the hospitals in recent years to help raise much needed funds. Artists taking part in the auction are; John Behan, Siobán Piercy, Mary Horan, Annie West, Elaine Byrne, Aideen Barry, Kieran Tobin, Eithna Joyce, Cliona Fox, Tony Gunning, Emmet Kierans, Charlotte Kelly, Ceara Conway, Paul Maye, Diane McCabe, Leah Beggs, Kamil Krawczak and Pam O’Connell.

The auction will be hosted by Rod Goodall. Rod currently on tour with Faith Healer is well known for his work with Footsbarn Theatre, Macnas, Blue Teapot Theatre and several independent productions. Music on the night will be provided by The Molly Hicks and Totem Roll.

Arts Officer, Margaret Flannery states: “We are very grateful to the artists who have given us both their time and a variety of wonderful artworks to raise funds to continue our arts programme.”

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is a charitable organisation that runs an extensive programme of activities in University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital. Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust aims to explore the role of the arts in the promotion of healing and wellbeing through a multi-disciplinary arts programme in order to promote greater links between the hospital and the community. The Trust promotes high quality, creative programming with artists and the arts community as a means of empowering the hospital community to express themselves creatively, improve their quality of life and bring about positive changes in the hospital environment and the wellbeing of the hospital community.

A generous loan of Modern Irish Art, initiated the arts programme in Galway University Hospitals in 2003. Artworks from the loan include the lithograph and brush prints of An Táin by Louis le Brocquy, works by Alice Maher, Samuel Walsh, Michael Cullen, Michael Mulcahy, Geraldine O’Reilly and many other prominent Irish artists. The programme has expanded to include twelve temporary exhibitions each year.

Other important programmes include Poems for Patience – displayed throughout the waiting areas, Art Angel – a programme of participatory art workshops in the Paediatric and Geriatric Departments. Artists residencies including Lorraine Tuck’s The Regional, Paul Maye’s Beyond Appearance as well as commissions, the latest being a series of murals and artworks for the Paediatric Unit.

Other activities include music recitals, drama workshops and publication of the memories of patients in the Geriatric units. The programme is linked to the cultural life of Galway city through exhibitions and partnerships during Galway Arts Festival, the Tulca Festival of Visual Art and the Cúirt International Festival of Literature. Over 300 individual arts and health events have been programmed since 2003 in Galway’s public hospitals.

Tickets are available from Galway University Hospitals Arts Office and for further information please contact Arts Officer, Margaret Flannery at 091 544979 or Margaret.Flannery@hse.ie  

North Beach Poetry Nights: Neil McCarthy PLUS The Connacht Heat of the All Ireland Slam 2011

Neil McCarthy

Monday October 17th at 9 pm

North Beach Poetry Nights

presents

The Connacht Heat of the All Ireland Slam 2011

in The Crane Bar

with guest Poet - Neil McCarthy (straight from Vienna!)

Poets wishing to enter the October Slam should have 2 max. 3 minute poems. The poem for the 2nd round must be performed without a script. So time to get memorizing now!

Two winning poets will represent Connacht in the All Ireland Slam in Derry in November.

Info: John @ 091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights acknowledges the generous support of Galway City Council.

All Ireland Poetry Day to be celebrated at Galway University Hospitals on Thursday October 6th

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust will be taking part in the Arts and Health Coordinators Ireland National Poetry Project, A Moment in Time on Thursday 6 October as part of All Ireland Poetry Day 2011. Staff and patients of University Hospital and Merlin Park University Hospital will be receiving a short anthology of poems, selected by Poet Mark Roper. The anthology will be presented as a menu on the breakfast tray for patients and will be available on tables in the staff canteens and in the hospital restaurants and shops. The poems approach the topic, A Moment in Time in various ways: some focus on the awareness of a single moment, others on a moment of realisation or choice.

Patients and staff of the hospital will also be in for a lunchtime treat when local poet Michael Gorman will give a poetry reading at 1.00pm in Conference Room 1, Nurses’ Home in University Hospital Galway. Michael Gorman was born in Sligo and educated at Summerhill College and NUI, Galway. His poetry collections include Postcards from Galway, Waiting for the Sky to fall and Up She Flew. He teaches poetry on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Michael Gorman is a hugely charismatic reader of his work; his readings are everything a good poetry reading should be.

The aim of the Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is to support and enhance the patient environment in University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital. We believe that involving the arts in the healing process promotes the wellbeing of patients staff and visitors to the hospital. For further information on this project and or the arts programme in Galway University Hospitals please contact Arts Officer, Margaret Flannery at 091 544979 or Margaret.Flannery@hse.ie  

September 'Over The Edge: Open Reading' with Moyra Donaldson, Aileen Armstrong & Davnet Heery PLUS the announcement of the winners of our 2011 New Writer of The Year competition.

Moyra Donaldson

The September Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, September 29th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Aileen Armstrong, Davnet Heery & Moyra Donaldson. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of the Year. The competition judge is Elaine Feeney.

Aileen Armstrong’s writing has appeared in the Stinging Fly, Three Times Daily, Some Blind Alleys, and Cuadrivio (in Spanish translation). In 2009, she graduated from the M.A. in Writing programme at NUIG, and in 2010, she received a literature bursary award from the Arts Council of Ireland. She lives in Co. Galway, and is currently working on a collection of short stories.

A long-time resident of Cois Fharraige, Connemara, Davnet Heery enjoys solitary walks along the shore and on the bog, day-dreaming. Recently graduated from the MA in Writing at NUIG she has had a giddy summer reading at literary festivals countrywide for the launch of the class anthology Bicycles with Umbrellas. Primarily a poet (she has been grant aided by Galway Co.Co. to work towards a collection Camellia) she also enjoys writing plays. Her short story The Little Girl in Pink was short-listed for The Francis Mc Manus award, 2011.

Moyra Donaldson was born and brought up in Co Down and has been described as one of the country’s most distinctive and accomplished writers: a poet whose voice is full of integrity and mystery. Her first full collection of poems Snakeskin Stilettos was published in 1998, followed by Beneath the Ice in 2001, both from Lagan Press. She has received four awards from the Arts Council NI, most recently, the Artist Career Enhancement Award. Moyra’s poems have featured on radio and television, including the Channel 4 production, Poems to Fall in Love With. Horse’s Nest, was published by Lagan Press in 2006 and described in Poetry Ireland Review as ‘one of the most enjoyable poetry books of the last few years.’ Her most recent collection, Miracle Fruit, was published by Lagan Press in November 2010.

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 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.

NEWSFLASH Shortlist for 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

2011 OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR

THE SHORTLIST

Philip Abbink, Galway, Ireland

Lisa Allen, Galway, Ireland

Bernie Ashe, Galway, Ireland

Stephanie Brennan, Galway, Ireland

Stephen Byrne, Galway, Ireland

Marie Cadden, Galway, Ireland

June Caldwell, Dublin, Ireland

Kimberly Campanello, Dublin, Ireland

Jane Clarke, Wicklow, Ireland

Damian Cunniffe, Galway, Ireland

Madeleine D'Arcy, Cork, Ireland

Philippa Gibbons, Galway, Ireland

Mary Healy, Kilkenny, Ireland

Sandra Jensen, Cork, Ireland

Jean Kavanagh, Clare, Ireland

Tom Lavelle, Galway, Ireland

Barbara Leahy, Cork, Ireland

Rosaleen McDonagh, Dublin, Ireland

Danielle McLoughlin, Cork, Ireland

Sighle Meehan, Galway, Ireland

Lauren Norton, California, USA

Kerrie O’Brien, Dublin, Ireland

Noel O’Regan, Kerry, Ireland

Niall Ó’ Sioradáin, Dublin, Ireland

Evelyn Parsons, Galway, Ireland

Bridget Rowland, Mayo, Ireland

Marybeth Rua-Larsen, Massachusetts, USA

Eimear Ryan, Tipperary, Ireland

Natalie Ryan, Dublin, Ireland

Rejini Samuel, Galway, Ireland

Seamus Scanlon, New York, USA

Maresa Sheehan, Carlow, Ireland

Steve Wade, Dublin, Ireland

John Walsh, Galway, Ireland

Heidi Wickam, Sligo, Ireland

The competition is kindly sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, McGinn’s Bar,

Niall Ó’Brolcháin, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames

& Mike Cubbard.

The winners will be announced

at the September Over The Edge: Open Reading

in Galway City Library

on Thursday, September, 29th, 6.30-8pm

The competition judge is Elaine Feeney

Galway launch of 'Boyne Berries' magazine at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop

Boyne Berries magazine was launched in spring 2007 by the Boyne Writers Group and it has been published twice yearly since. Boyne Berries includes prose and poetry from Boyne Writers Group members but also receives submissions from elsewhere in Ireland and from all over the world. It has published poems and stories from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and India in its nine issues so far. The group is especially pleased to have given many writers their first publication opportunity.

Boyne Berries’ simple spare style and trademark covers have become well-known among Irish writers but this ten has a different look and feel. Boyne Berries 10, is a special celebratory issue in a larger format with pictures and graphics as well as the usual prose, poems and drama. The cover has a striking colour image of Trim Castle floodlit at night by Greg Hastings whose images have been featured on the previous nine covers.

The titles of some of the other pieces give some idea of the variety of subject matter in the magazine: 'Leaving Nagasaki'; 'In Times of Deep Recession'; 'An American Mother’s Day in Ireland'; 'Thirteen Superstitions'; 'Allotment Allure'.

To mark this the tenth issue there will be a special Galway launch from 6pm on Friday 30 September in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Middle Street, Galway. Kevin Higgins will perform the official launch there and will read his contribution. Other contributors from the Galway area in this issue include Alan McMonagle, Liam Duffy, Rachel Coventry, Méabh McDonnell and Mari Maxwell.

The Boyne Writers Group was founded in March 2006 and meets twice monthly in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim, Co. Meath. Its members are drawn from south Meath and surrounding counties and write poetry, prose and drama. Many have been published and have won awards in literary competitions. They have organised regular readings in Trim, a satire competition and poetry readings in connection with Trim Swift Festival and have organised events for All Ireland Poetry Day.

Creative Writing at Galway Technical Institute this Autumn- BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE

N.B. TAKING BOOKINGS FROM THE MORNING OF TUESDAY SEPT. 13TH ONWARDS

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7-9.30pm. (8 weeks) It commences on Monday, September 26th, 2011. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120. Kevin Higgins will provide writing exercises for, and give gentle critical feedback to, those interested in trying their hand at writing poems, stories or memoir.

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Tuesday) from 7-9.30pm (8 weeks) It commences on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120. This class is suitable for those who’ve participated in creative writing classes before or begun to have work published in magazines. Flexible exercises and work-shopping of assignments, together with the study of the works of published writers, will help each class member to find their own writing voice.

To book a place in either class contact GTI, Father Griffin Road, Galway Telephone 091-581342, e-mail info@gti.ie or see http://www.gti.ie

Poetry Workshops at Galway Arts Centre with Kevin Higgins STARTING IN SEPTEMBER

Starting in September, Galway Arts Centre is offering aspiring poets a choice of three poetry workshops, all facilitated by poet Kevin Higgins, whose best-selling first collection, ‘The Boy With No Face’, published by Salmon Poetry, was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish poet. Kevin’s second collection of poems, ‘Time Gentlemen, Please’, was published in 2008 by Salmon Poetry and his poetry is discussed in The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry. His third collection ‘Frightening New Furniture’ was published last year by Salmon and his work also appears in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade –New British and Irish Poets (Ed. Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). A collection of Kevin’s essays and reviews will be published by Salmon Poetry early next year. His next collection of poetry ‘The Ghost in The Lobby’ will be published in early 2013, also by Salmon.

Kevin is an experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. One of his workshop participants at Galway Arts Centre won the prestigious Hennessy Award for New Irish Poetry, another the Cúirt New Writing Prize, and yet another the Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam, while several have published collections of their poems. Kevin is also co-organiser of the successful Over The Edge reading series which specialises in promoting new writers.

Each workshop will run for ten weeks, commencing the week of September 19th. They will take place on Tuesday evenings, 7-8.30pm (first class September 20th); on Thursday afternoons, 2-4pm (first class September 22nd) and on Friday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class September 23rd).

The Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon workshops are open to both complete beginners as well as those who’ve been writing for some time. The Thursday afternoon workshop is an Advanced Poetry Workshop, suitable for those who’ve participated in poetry workshops before or had poems published in magazines. The cost to participants is €110, with an €100 concession rate.

Places must be paid for in advance. To reserve a place contact Victoria at reception at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886 or email victoria@galwayartscentre.ie  

GMIT presents Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars

This autumn GMIT is offering a course in Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars. The course takes place at GMIT Dublin Road Campus one evening per week (Wednesday) for 7 weeks from 7–9p.m. It commences on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011.Advance booking is essential. The course fee is €95.

During the seven weeks Susan Millar DuMars will give support, instruction and feedback to students who are interested in writing either fiction (short stories, novels) or poetry. The class will work on techniques for forming ideas and getting started; engaging the reader’s senses; using figures of speech effectively; being alert to the importance of the sound of words, the rhythm of writing; how to manage the truth in a fictitious piece; the different forms of poetry; awareness of character and point of view in fiction; editing and polishing work. Whether the student seeks publication, self-expression, a rewarding hobby (or possibly all three), this course is a wonderful place to start.

For further details or to book a place contact GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway. Telephone 091 742145 or see http://www.gmit.ie/lifelong-learning/lifelong-learning-programmes/humanities/creative-writing-beginners_1.html

Course Tutor:
Susan Millar DuMars' debut poetry collection, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2008. Her next collection, Dreams for Breakfast, appeared in April 2010. Her work features in Landing Places, Dedalus’ 2010 anthology of immigrant poetry written in Ireland; and also in The Best Of Irish Poetry 2010. A fiction writer as well, she published a collection of short stories, American Girls, with Lapwing in 2007. She published a book of short stories in 2010: Lights in the Distance, published by Doire Press. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary. She lives in Galway, where she and her husband have run the Over the Edge readings series since 2003.

Galway launch of 'Ireland Is Changing Mother' by Rita Ann Higgins

The Galway Arts Centre would like to invite you to attend the Galway launch

of Ireland Is Changing Mother (Bloodaxe Books)

by Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins

Friday September 16th, 6pm, The Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street.

The collection will be officially launched by comedian Tommy Tiernan.

Wine reception provided, all are welcome.

Launch of 'And' the debut short story collection by Jim Mullarkey

North Beach Poetry Nights Returns After The Summer Break

North Beach Poetry Nights' Slam returns

on Monday 19th September

in the Crane Bar at 9 pm

with guest Poet - Séamus Fox (Belfast),

the 2009 All Ireland Slam Champion

and songs from Mark James.

Séamus Fox was born in Belfast and grew up in Craigavon, Co Armagh. By the time he was 16 or 17 he was writing his own raps. Later in his twenties he read the poetry of Plath, Bukowski, Sexton and Carver and just as with rap he thought “I could do this!”  Around 2006 he began writing with a vigour he had never before known. In early 2007 he began to perform at poetry nights in Belfast where he met a wide range of artistic type people and this spurred him to write even more. He performs regularly at poetry nights and comedy nights around the city and doesn’t try to write any more. Performance is a very free and comfortable discipline for him. In October 2009 he won the All Ireland Slam title in Galway and on August 13th 2010 his first book “As Seen Through Staggered Eyes” was published by Wild Wind Books. He has been a regular performer at too many nights to mention for the last 3 or 4 years. He writes spoken word, written word, comedy, rap and short stories. He is currently working intently on his second collection of poems which should be finished in the next 2 to 3 months.

Poets wishing to enter the September Slam should have 2 max. 3 minute poems.

The poem for the 2nd round must be performed without a script.

So time to get memorizing now!

Next Month 17th October: Neil McCarthy (currently in Vienna)

Info: John@ 091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights acknowledges the generous support of Galway City Council.

On The Farm presents Mixed Grazing

On the Farm presents,

in association with Dunnes Stores —

Mixed Grazing:

Music with Mike and Sue Fahy,

Fiction with Colm Brady,

Comedy with Eleanor Tiernan,

Poetry with Susan Lindsay

and theatre with Anthony Daly.

Saturday Oct 1st, 12pm.

Ballinderreen, Co. Galway.

Event not weather permitting

and it’s Free!

M.C Mags Treanor

Info: 087 9139698

Facebook: On the Farm

Poetry Reading at The Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar

On Thursday, Sept 29th at 8pm, 3 poets, Terry McDonagh, (Mayo), Rab Wilson, (Scotland) and Andrew Forster, (England) read at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, County Mayo.

September Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering with Richard Halperin, Jane Clarke, C.P. Stewart & The Skylight Poets

C.P. Stewart

The September Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by poets from Ireland, the UK and France. Visiting poets Richard Halperin, Jane Clarke and C.P. Stewart will read their work. Also reading on the night will be members of the legendary Galway-based poetry workshop, The Skylight Poets, who will showcase their exciting new anthology, Mosaic, which has already garnered praise from renowned poets Moya Cannon and Mary O’Malley. The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, September 9th, 8pm. All are welcome.

Richard W. Halperin holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the City University of New York. Until 2005 he was chief of teacher education for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, which entailed travel and work in Asia, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. For UNESCO, he edited the downloadable book Reading and Writing Poetry: The Recommendations of Noted Poets from Many Lands on the Teaching of Poetry in Secondary Schools, available in English, French and Spanish versions. He will read from his poetry collection, Anniversary, which was published last year by Salmon Poetry.

Originally from a farm in Roscommon, Jane Clarke, now lives in Wicklow and is a member of Airfield Writers. She has had poems published in Cyphers, Crannóg, Revival, The Shop, The Stony Thursday Book, Southword and has won a number of prizes, including the Listowel Writers’ Week Prize (2007). In 2009 she was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. She is currently studying for an MPhil in Writing with the University of Glamorgan, Wales. Jane is short-listed for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition.

C.P. Stewart lives with his family in North Yorkshire. Formerly singer/songwriter with the cult band Laughing Gravy, his poetry has been widely published in Canada, Australia, Ireland, England and the United States. For two years he was the Poetry Editor of Sotto Voce Arts and Literary magazine (U.S.). A chapbook of his poetry, Taking it In was published by Koo Poetry Press in 2009. His New and Selected Poems, Considering the Lilies, was published earlier this year by the Galway-based publisher Wordsonthestreet.

Skylight Poets is the collective name for an unlikely bunch of writers who have gathered on Thursday afternoons in a sparsely furnished room with four skylights at the top of Galway Arts Centre in Dominick Street Galway. Under the guidance of poet and workshop director Kevin Higgins the first anthology from this motley group Lady Gregory’s Townhouse was published in 2009. This was followed in 2010 by the highly praised Behind the Masks and this year sees the publication of the Skylight Poets’ third anthology Mosaic. Edited by Sarah Clancy, Des Kavanagh, Deirdre Kearney and Kevin O’Shea, Mosaic has already garnered praise from renowned poets Moya Cannon and Mary O'Malley.

There is no entrance fee. The Kitchen @ The Museum has a wine licence. For further information contact 087-6431748.

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

NEWSFLASH Long-list for 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

Philip Abbink, Galway, Ireland
John Austin Connolly, Dublin, Ireland
Lisa Allen, Galway, Ireland
Bernie Ashe, Galway, Ireland
Meleesha Bardolia, Melbourne, Australia
Gene Barry, Cork, Ireland
Marie Bashford-Synnott, Dublin, Ireland
Batsheva Battu, Galway, Ireland
Stephanie Brennan, Galway, Ireland
Paul Bradley, Galway, Ireland
Bern Butler, Galway, Ireland
Erin Buttner, Galway, Ireland
Stephen Byrne, Galway, Ireland
Marie Cadden, Galway, Ireland
June Caldwell, Dublin, Ireland
Kimberly Campanello, Dublin, Ireland
Angela T. Carr, Dublin, Ireland
Martin Casey, Mayo, Ireland
Jane Clarke, Wicklow, Ireland
Rachel Coventry, Galway, Ireland
Bernie Crawford, Galway, Ireland
Damian Cunniffe, Galway, Ireland
Madeleine D'Arcy, Cork, Ireland
Rory Duffy, Westmeath, Ireland
Hilary Fennell, Dublin, Ireland
Stephanie Flaherty-Klapp, Galway, Ireland
Philippa Gibbons, Galway, Ireland
Pauline Gillen, Galway, Ireland
Mary Healy, Kilkenny, Ireland
Dearbhaile Houston, Galway, Ireland
Derek Hynes, Galway, Ireland
Anne Irwin, Galway, Ireland
Sandra Jensen, Cork, Ireland
Des Kavanagh, Galway, Ireland
Jean Kavanagh, Clare, Ireland
Stephen Kennedy, Dublin, Ireland
Tom Lavelle, Galway, Ireland
Barbara Leahy, Cork, Ireland
Laurie Leech, Galway, Ireland
Marie MacSweeney, Louth, Ireland
Gemma Marren, Mayo, Ireland
Connie Masterson, Galway, Ireland
Antoinette McCarthy, Kilkenny, Ireland
Rosaleen McDonagh, Dublin, Ireland
Andrew McEneff, Dublin, Ireland
Danielle McLoughlin, Cork, Ireland
Paul McMahon, Sligo, Ireland
Anne McManus, Galway, Ireland
Sighle Meehan, Galway, Ireland
Lauren Norton, California, USA
Kerrie O’Brien, Dublin, Ireland
Brian O’Connell, Galway, Ireland
David O'Dwyer, Dublin, Ireland
Noel O’Regan, Kerry, Ireland
Michael O'Siochain, Cork, Ireland
Niall Ó’ Sioradáin, Dublin, Ireland
Kevin O'Shea, Galway, Ireland
James O'Toole, Galway, Ireland
Evelyn Parsons, Galway, Ireland
Laura Peters, London, UK
Fiona Place, Galway, Ireland
Bridget Rowland, Mayo, Ireland
Marybeth Rua-Larsen, Massachusetts, USA
Breda Wall Ryan, Wicklow, Ireland
Eimear Ryan, Tipperary, Ireland
Natalie Ryan, Dublin, Ireland
Rejini Samuel, Galway, Ireland
Seamus Scanlon, New York, USA
Maresa Sheehan, Carlow, Ireland
Alan Timmons, Wicklow, Ireland
Steve Wade, Dublin, Ireland
Alice Walsh, Dublin, Ireland
John Walsh, Galway, Ireland
Nicole Walsh, Sligo, Ireland
Heidi Wickam, Sligo, Ireland

The competition is kindly sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, McGinn’s Bar, Niall Ó’Brolcháin, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames & Mike Cubbard.

The shortlist will be announced

at the August Over The Edge:Open Reading

in Galway City Library

this coming Thursday, August, 25th, 6.30-8pm.

The competition judge is Elaine Feeney.

Fiction Long-list – a few words about the process by Susan Millar DuMars

(N.B. 40 of the writers on the above long-list are long-listed for fiction, the other 35 for poetry.)

There were 197 stories entered. Only 40 could be long-listed. So more than three quarters of the stories had to lose out.

Stories were read by me and three other very experienced writers with no names attached. Any entries with which I was familiar I gave to the three volunteers for their verdict.

Each entrant was allowed one story on the long-list. That way the greatest number of people could benefit from being long-listed.

The Result
Many fine writers didn’t make it this time; including many with Masters Degrees, many who have read for Over the Edge, many for whom I’d have great professional respect. This was startling to realise, and my heart broke for those who didn’t get through. At the same time, it proves the fairness of the process.
In the end, here is what we looked for:
• Stories with a strong, unusual, likeable narrative voice.
• Simple stories; those with elaborate, gimmicky plot twists generally did not make it through.
• Stories with memorable images we could not get out of our heads.
• Stories that used their 3000 words well. That is, the piece didn’t read like a vignette, an exercise or an extract but a fleshed out story with clear beginning, middle, end.
• Stories that felt true. Not that they had to be true, of course. But the author must have taken the time to walk in her characters’ shoes.

It was a very tough job; the standard of entries was very high. My sincere congratulations to the forty authors who made it to the fiction long-list.