Cúirt Festival Launch of Poems for Patience and The Cat's Cradle-Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust

In association with

Cúirt International Festival of Literature

warmly invites you to the launch of

POEMS FOR PATIENCE VIII

An exhibition of poems selected and introduced by Dennis O’Driscoll

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust invites you to come along to the launch of the eighth series of the very successful Poems for Patience initiative. Poet Dennis O’Driscoll will introduce 21 poems he has selected, including works by Poets reading at this year’s festival. The poetry is circulated throughout the waiting areas of University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital. For the duration of the festival, the poems will be on display on the Art Corridor, University Hospital, Galway.

Dennis O’Driscoll, born in Tipperary in 1954, he has published eight books of his poetry, a collection of his essays and reviews, a book of quotations about poetry and a collection of his interviews with Seamus Heaney. His awards include a Lannan Literary Award, the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the O’Shaughnessy Award from the Center of Irish Studies in Minnesota, and the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature by University College Dublin in 2009.

and

THE CAT’S CRADLE VI

Memoirs and Stories from patients in Units 5 & 6 edited and introduced by Kevin Higgins

Volume 6 of Cat’s Cradle – That Must Be Me! – will also be launched on the Art Corridor. Kevin Higgins; Merlin Park University Hospital Writer-in-Residence has compiled stories by patients from Units Five and Six of Merlin Park University Hospital using photographs and memorabilia.

The opening is on Friday 15th April at 11.00am on the Arts Corridor, University Hospital Galway

(The Arts Corridor is located just off the main foyer of the hospital in the direction of the Out Patients Department)

For further details contact
Margaret Flannery
Arts Officer
Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust
Galway University Hospital,
Galway
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)91 544979
Email: margaret.flannery@hse.ie

Spring Creative Writing at GMIT with Susan Millar DuMars

Susan Millar DuMars will give support, instruction and feedback to students who are interested in writing either fiction (short stories, novels) or poetry. The course takes place one evening per week (Wednesday) for 7 weeks from 7–9 p.m. The course commences on Wednesday, April 20th. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €95.00. For further details or to book a place contact GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway. Telephone 091-742145 or see http://www.gmit.ie/

Susan was born in Philadelphia in 1966 to a Belfast-born mother. She holds an MA in Writing from the University of San Francisco. Her poems and short stories have been published widely in the US, UK and Ireland. Susan's stories have been short-listed for many awards, and in 2005 she received an Irish Arts Council Bursary for her fiction. American Girls, a volume of her short stories, was published by Lapwing in 2007. Since 2003, Susan and her husband Kevin Higgins have organised the successful Over the Edge reading series, showcasing new writers. Susan teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute, Galway Arts Centre, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words programme. Big Pink Umbrella (Salmon Poetry, 2008) was the first full collection of her poetry. One of her poems was chosen by editor, Mathew Sweeney, for inclusion in Best of Irish Poetry 2010 (Southword Editions). Several of her poems feature in Landing Places: Immigrant Poets in Ireland, edited by Eva Bourke (Dedalus Press, March 2010). Her second collection of poems, Dreams for Breakfast, was published this April by Salmon Poetry. Her first full collection of short stories, Lights In The Distance, is published this December by Doire Press.

http://www.gmit.ie/lifelong-learning/lifelong-learning-programmes/general-interest/artistic-creative/creative-writing-beginners.html

Dave Lordan at North Beach Poetry Nights

North Beach Poetry Nights' Slam on Monday 11th April in the Crane Bar at 9 pm with guest Poet - DAVE LORDAN (Dublin)

Dave Lordan is a powerful and provocative performer, who has carved out a niche for himself in the literary and performance world all over Ireland and abroad. Dave's 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 the Irish Times called: 'an act of cultural resistance, as brilliant on the page as it must surely be in performance'. Éigse Riada theatre company produced his first play, Jo Bangles, at the Mill Theatre, Dundrum in 2010.

Dave Lordan is not to be missed!

Poets wishing to enter the March 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!

Door 5/3 Euro.

Info: John@ 091-593290

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

The Pamphlet Project Launches Issue 1 at Testify! @ Roisín Dubh

Each issue of The Pamphlet Project will see a poet collaborate with a visual artist. Issue 1 was designed by Clare Lymer with words by Elaine Cosgrove and will be launched at Testify! @ The Roisín Dubh on Monday, April 4th, 8pm.

Clare Lymer recently returned to her hometown Galway after successfully completing her B.A. in (Hons) Photography at University of the Arts London. Her photographic work has been selected to front and promote various projects. These include Source Photographic Review’s Graduate Photography Project 2009, the Arts Council of England’s ‘Own Art’ in 2010 – an initiative to engage and inspire new buyers of contemporary art, and by Camberwell College of Arts in a showcase for their B.A. Photography course.

In 2009, curator Johan Sjöström of The Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden chose Clare’s work as part of his best 6 graduating photography students from the U.K. and Ireland. She was one of selected graduate artists to exhibit in the PhotoIreland Festival 2010, Ireland’s first international festival of Photography and Image Culture. In 2010, Clare was an artist in residence at the Burren College of Art and her work on ley lines made the final longlist for the Gallery of Photography’s Artist’s Award. She has been published and exhibited in Ireland, the U.K. and Germany.

Elaine Cosgrove is 25, comes from Sligo and currently lives in Galway. She writes poetry and flash fiction and loves both almost the same. Elaine graduated from N.U.I. Galway in 2007 with a B.A. (Hons) in English, Sociology & Political Science. Elaine has participated in a creative writing seminar facilitated by Mary O’Malley, and creative writing classes facilitated by Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars.

In 2010, Elaine was shortlisted for the ‘Fish Publishing One Page Story Prize’ and also the ‘Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Competition’. Following this, she was a featured reader at the December ‘Over the Edge Reading’ in the Galway City Library. She took part in a ‘Poetry Depot’, co-organised by SpiritStore and Ink Storm, for Culture Night Limerick 2010.

Elaine has self-published two chapbooks called be still, girl, be still and Varnish. She read poems from Varnish at the ‘Over the Edge Poetry Showcase 2011’. Most recently, Elaine has been published by the online magazine wordlegs and has set-up a small chapbook publishing press called opener chapbooks.

Cúirt Festival Masterclasses

Please note that the closing date for applications for the Poetry and Prose Masterclasses during Cúirt, is next Friday, 25th March at midnight.


Submissions are welcomed for the Fiction Masterclass with Dermot Healy on Wednesday 13th April, 11am-1pm, Hotel Meyrick, Eyre Square and the Poetry Masterclass with Simon Armitage, Thursday 14th April, 11am-1pm, Hotel Meyrick, Eyre Square.


To apply, please email your contact details to siobhan@galwayartscentre.ie along with a sample of your work (750 words max for prose and 2 poems for poetry).


The cost of each Masterclass is €20.


For more details of the festival programme see: http://www.cuirt.ie

March Poetry Slam at Galway Arts Centre

The next Galway Arts Centre Poetry Slam with MC Pete Mullineaux will take place Tuesday March 15th at 7pm at the Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street.

Anyone can participate on the night and new comers are very welcome. To participate you need one poem/piece that will take about 3 minutes to perform. Judges on the night will select their favourite and the winner will be invited to be a guest reader at the next slam as well as qualifying for the Cúirt Grand Slam which will take place during this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature 12-17 April 2011. In addition to this, the winner's poem will be published on the Galway Arts Centre website along with a biography of the contestant. There will also be an interactive words game on the night with a Charlie Byrne's Bookshop voucher up for grabs.


Our guest reader this month will be last month's winner, Dave Rock.

Loose Lips @ Róisin Dubh

This Wednesday, 30th March, as usual, upstairs in the Roisin at 9pm, another fantastic Loose Lips story telling session.

Theme: SURPRISES!

Have you ever surprised someone? Ever been surprised? Or do you just want to tell us how much you love or hate surprises? Maybe the story itself will be a surprise?

And if you don't have a story, why not come along and listen, because all story tellers need listeners.

March North Beach Poetry Nights' Slam with Dave Rock at The Crane Bar

North Beach Poetry Nights' Slam returns on Monday 21st March in the Crane Bar at 9 pm with guest Poet - DAVE ROCK

Dave Rock has been a featured performer at practically every main venue for poetry in Ireland, and soon will be at the rest! He placed third in the Cuirt Literature Festival Grand slam and fourth in the All Ireland. His performing style is highly physical and expressive, and often very joyous. He combines slam pieces with traditional poetry. He has also been a storyteller for a number of years, working with traditional and his own invented folktales. He is the co-creator of the InkStorm workshops in creative writing and performing, which have had a ream of very successful events across Ireland and England. He has taught and facilitated both writing, storytelling and performing with children, teens and adults. He's currently designing a new breed of workshops. He's been published in a number of journals, and will be published in the rest! His chapbook, A Single Unstruck Match, was published in 2008. He's also an art photographer, with a number of successful exhibitions.

At the moment Dave in partnership with the SpiritStore Limerick to create a series of public events, with teams of poets offering to help members of the public reimagine their futures, writing poems on the spot based on the feelings, ideas, and experiences shared with them, or creating work on any subject the public choose. These events will lead to a series of publications, public meetings/readings and an ongoing web project. He's also in the final year of a PhD in Sociology and Political Science. North Beach Nights was where he first cut his teeth with performance poetry, having been encouraged to come along by All Ireland Champ Brendan Murphy, and he's very excited to feature there four years later.

Poets wishing to enter the March 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!

Door 5/3 Euro. Info: John@ 091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council

Over The Edge March Writers' Gathering with Nick Hayes, Lorna Shaughnessy, Anna Snyder, Alan Jude Moore, John W. Sexton & Alex Hijmans

The Over The Edge March Writers’ Gathering presents readings by poets and fiction writers from Ireland, The Netherlands and the United States. Nick Hayes, Alex Hijmans, Lorna Shaughnessy, Anna Snyder, John W. Sexton & Alan Jude Moore will read their work at The Café 8 @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, March 11th, 8pm.

Nick Hayes is a frequent guest on radio and television in the United States; he also publishes widely in newspapers, magazines, and journals. He has been the recepient of awards from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Program. He won an Emmy in 1991 for his work on the documentary "Television and Democracy in Russia." Nick is a professor of history and holds the university chair in critical thinking at Saint John’s University in Minnesota. His memoir And One Fine Morning Memoires of My Father (Nodin Press) was published in 2010.

Alex Hijmans was born in The Netherlands. He moved to Galway in 1995, learned Irish, worked as a journalist and ran a coffeehouse, Café Bananaphoblacht. In 2007 he moved to Brazil, where he works as an international correspondent. Aiséirí is his first novel. A book of his non-fiction, Favela, was published, also by Cois Life, in 2009. Alex’ short stories have appeared in Comhar, Crannóg Magazine and Irish Pages. His website is http://www.alexhijmans.com/

Lorna Shaughnessy was born in Belfast and lives in County Galway. She lectures in the Department of Spanish, NUI Galway. She has published two translations of contemporary Mexican poetry, Mother Tongue: Selected Poems by Pura López Colomé and If We Have Lost our Oldest Tales by MarÃa Baranda, both with Arlen House (2006). Her first collection of poetry, Torching the Brown River, was published by Salmon in 2008. Her second collection, Witness Trees, will be published later this year also by Salmon.

Anna Snyder is a student in the Masters of Writing program at NUI Galway, and though she sees herself as primarily a prose-writer, she has undergone a poetic renaissance while living in Galway. Her greatest loves are writing, travelling, and playing the guitar badly. Once her Masters is completed, she hopes to somehow find a job in Dublin so she can stay in Ireland for as long as she wants.

John W. Sexton was born in 1958 is the author of the poetry collections: The Prince’s Brief Career (Cairn Mountain Press, 1995), Shadows Bloom / Scáthanna Faoi Bhláth, a book of haiku with translations into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock, and Vortex (Doghouse, 2005). Under the ironic pseudonym of Sex W. Johnston he has recorded an album with legendary Stranglers frontman, Hugh Cornwell, entitled Sons of Shiva, which has been released on Track Records. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry. His fourth collection, Petit Mal, was published recently by Revival Press.

Alan Jude Moore is the author of three collections of poetry, Black State Cars (Salmon Poetry, 2004), Lost Republics (Salmon Poetry, 2008) and Strasbourg (Salmon Poetry, 2010). He is widely published, in Ireland and abroad, and his fiction has been twice short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Writing. Translations of his work have been published in Italy, Russia and Turkey. He lives in Dublin.

There is no entrance fee. The Café @ The Museum has a wine licence. 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.

March 'Over The Edge: Open Reading' with Miriam Gamble, James Lawless & Anne McManus

Miriam Gamble

Over The Edge in association with Poetry Ireland presents the March Over The Edge: Open Reading. The reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, March 31st, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Miriam Gamble, James Lawless & Anne McManus.

Miriam Gamble was born in Brussels in 1980 and grew up in Belfast. She studied at Oxford and at Queen’s University Belfast, where she completed a PhD in contemporary British and Irish poetry. She writes poems, reviews and critical essays and is a part-time tutor in creative writing at Queen’s University. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2007, and her pamphlet, This Man's Town, was published by tall-lighthouse in 2007. A selection of her poems appears in the Bloodaxe anthology Voice Recognition: 21 poets for the 21st century (2009). Her first book-length collection, The Squirrels Are Dead, was published by Bloodaxe last year. Miriam lives and works in Belfast.

James Lawless was born in Dublin. His novels are Peeling Oranges (Mullingar, Killynon House Books, 2007); For Love of Anna (New Generation, 2009); and The Avenue (Galway, Wordsonthestreet, 2010). His story Jolt was shortlisted for the Willenden Prize and appeared in New Short Stories 1, edited Zadie Smith (London/ New York, Willesden Herald, 2007). His other awards the Cecil Day Lewis Play Award 2005 for What Are Neighbours For? and a Hennessy Award nomination in 2010. He divides his time between County Kildare and West Cork.

Anne McManus was born and grew up in Sligo town. She trained as a Home Economics teacher in St Angela’s College, Sligo. Anne came to writing unexpectedly when in 1999 NUIG, through its Continuing Education Programme, provided Salthill Active Retirement Association with a tutor, Maire Holmes, to enable older people to take up writing. Anne has previously read her work at Galway Arts Centre’s Nuns Island Studio and at the Over The Edge open-mic. She is currently a participant in the S.A.R.A writers’ group which is facilitated by Kevin Higgins. Anne writes both poetry and fiction.

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 and the sponsorship of this reading by Poetry Ireland.

February Over The Edge: Open Reading with Claire Kilroy, Susan Kelly & Bríd Buckley

                                                                 Claire Kilroy


The February Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, February 24th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Claire Kilroy, Susan Kelly & Bríd Buckley


Bríd Buckley is a blow-in poetry and fiction writer from Cork who doesn't really know what to say about herself. She writes pretty much whatever comes into her head. She moved to Galway in 2009 to do the MA in writing in NUIG. Before this she studied English and Psychology and subsequently Film. She has read at and mceed the Ó Bhéal poetry nights in The Long Valley in Cork and has also read her work at the Tuam Arts Festival and the Whitehouse Bar Limerick.


Susan Kelly is from Westport, Co Mayo where she writes about what she knows and makes up the rest. She started writing poetry just over three years ago and since then her work has appeared in Cyphers, Crannóg, Revival, Abridged, and on wordlegs.com and is currently short listed for the Writing Spirit Award. She is a member of Westport Writer’s Group and has co-edited its annual publication, The Broadsheet.


Claire Kilroy is the author of three novels which loosely form a trilogy about the obsessions and exhilarations of art. Her debut, All Summer, a literary thriller about a stolen painting, was awarded the 2004 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her second novel, Tenderwire, a love story between a violinist and a masterpiece violin, was published to great acclaim in 2006, and was shortlisted for the 2007 Irish Novel of the Year as well as the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Her latest novel, All Names Have Been Changed, set in 1980s Dublin and centring around a great Irish writer and his Trinity writing class, was published this May. Educated at Trinity College, she lives in Dublin.


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.

Launch of Susan Lindsay's debut collection of poetry at Galway City Museum

Susan Lindsay's debut collection of poems, Whispering The Secrets, published by Doire Press, will be launched by Kevin Higgins at Galway City Museum on Saturday, March 26th, 1pm. All welcome.

Susan Lindsay was born in Dublin but now lives in Galway. She has attended poetry classes at Galway Arts Centre, and read her poems at the Over the Edge: Open Readings, the Baffle Festival, the Cuirt Poetry Slam and North Beach Poetry Nights. In December 2005 Susan won the RTE Carol of Our Times competition, and her work was put to music by the RTE Concert Orchestra. She was shortlisted for the Valentines Day Sonnet Competition sponsored by Tig Neactains’. Her poems have also appeared in Lady Gregory's Town House and Behind The Masks. Susan was recently a participant in the Faber Academy.

For more see the Doire Press website http://www.doirepress.com/site/HOME.html

Spring Creative Writing at Galway Technical Institute - BEGINNERS & INTERMEDIATE

TAKING BOOKINGS NOW

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Wednesday) from 7-9.30pm. (8 weeks) It commences on Wednesday, March 2nd, 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 (Thursday) from 7-9.30pm (8 weeks) It commences on Thursday, March 3rd, 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

Side-Show Productions presents 'Dreams Of Love' at The Town Hall Theatre

Side-Show Productions

Presents

Dreams Of Love

February 24th-26th

Town Hall Studio

Tickets: €10/€8

It’s all been real.

Dreams of Love is an original show co-created by the company. Three actors; one girl and two guys, are locked in a revolving love triangle. The spectacle turns through various guises from Romeo and Juliet’s amateur dramatics through to a melodrama on Youtube and on to a scene where a King demands a sandwich. It will all happen once upon a night, for three nights in February at the Town Hall Studio Galway.

Devised and performed by Zita Monaghan, Richard Walsh and Martin Sharry. Sound design by Keith Grainger.

Side-Show Productions aims to stage spectacles that will engage and provoke an audience. Our process attends to the problem of narrative and the associated complications that affect agency. In the treatment of our subject we reflect the many modes of modern culture consumption. We’re open to hybridization and seek to collaborate with other artists working in different art forms. The company is delighted to be presenting their first show at the Town Hall Studio.

Martin Sharry is a graduate of the M.A. in Theatre and Drama Studies, NUIG (2008). He has been a member of the Galway based ensemble WATERDONKEY Theatre. The first Side-Show Production was an ambulatory performance during the Ennis Street Theatre Festival 2010. Martin offered free walking history tours mixing improvisation with neglected biographical fact.

Zita Monahan holds an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from NUI Galway. She is also an ensemble member of Galway based companies Mephisto Theatre and WATERDONKEY Theatre and recently performed in The Theatre Machine TurnsYou On in the Project Arts Centre Dublin The Very Best of John Lennon. Zita is also Drama Coach at StageCoach Theatre Arts School, Galway and Clare.

Richard Walsh completed a masters in film in 2008 in NUI Galway and has been working with film in Galway since then. His final film as a student won the MAMA award and the Radharc award for student media. He has a keen interest in the overlap between theatre and film and has worked with a number of theatre groups. Originally trained as an architect, Richard has a keen interest in spaciality and its impact in a theatrical format.